After the Moon
by C. M. Spinks
Summary: Leeyoon is trying to move on with his life, but what kind of life can he have now that he's not a guardian? He doesn't know, until he meets a strange faun that turns his life upside down! A story about friendship, finding your place, and finding happiness.
1. Chapter 1

The world had been quiet since Mune took over being the Guardian of the Moon. It'd had taken him those dangerous, frightening days and nights to find a balance, to find himself, but find it he did, and the balance he'd made was one that fit the world well. He took to it like a fish to water, after he learned to trust himself.

Leeyoon had to admit he was doing a good job. He hated it, of course, and wished it was himself up on that marvelous moonbeast, wished it was he that carried the moon and the balance and saved the world. Of course, he'd never have put the world in danger in the first place-

No, no, those were vicious and dangerous thoughts. Thoughts that had made him help darkness almost consume the world he loved so much. It was arrogance, selfishness, and he supposed he should know better by now.

Still, when you dedicate your life to being and becoming a certain thing, to do a job, and that job is taken away, what is one to do but reflect and perhaps feel bitter, if only for a small while?

And that was where Leeyoon found himself, and had been for some time. It seemed like years had passed, but truthfully it'd only been a few months. He contemplated his purpose in life, or rather, his new lack of one. What was he to do now? What could he do? He knew the moon, the night, being a holy leader, being important, being everything he wasn't anymore.

He supposed no one was unkind to him for having been usurped by Mune, but no one seemed to miss him when he stayed in his cave for days and days and slept and didn't speak. No one came to look, anyway, though he had barked at a faun a while back for waking him, so maybe that was his fault, too.

He'd been in his home for too long again, feeling the walls as intimately as he knew his own form, as well as he knew how the cycle of night and day passed, as well as he'd memorized the books and ancient writings.. too well. The quiet drip of water in the dark recesses was too familiar now, no replacement for words or conversation or birdsong, and it made him ache for the outside. And yet..

No. He sat up, body cracking from too little movement, and made his way outside.

Night had just crossed over the land, the early evening flowers alight in blues and pinks, the fauns singing them to life. Their coos once seemed mystical to him, but now they were a language he knew well, a language unto the land itself. All it took was his touch to stimulate the plants similarly, but he kept his hands to himself now. He didn't feel worthy of the honor of stoking the land to waking, not when the moon herself-

More dangerous thoughts. These ones he'd humored too many times, feeling pity and bitterness and a wrath directed not outwards, but in. He'd worked so hard, after all, had studied and worked and toiled to be what he was supposed to be, and it wasn't enough? What a miserable thing to know.

He walked near the fauns as they performed their duty, listening to their songs, and though several waved, no one spoke to him, and he felt that suited him just well. His voice was dry and cracked and untested for several nights now, and if he were to have to speak, well, he didn't think his normally smooth voice would be the one that appeared.

Early evening turned to midnight, and the tasks of the evening fell into self care and community work. Food was shared and the fauns talked amongst themselves in groups. Leeyoon only walked, lost in thought with a conversation between himself and his demons, though they were thankfully less literal than the ones that had preyed on his weakness. He walked and thought and walked and thought, until a small conversation suddenly caught his attention.

"..She didn't look so good. So pale! And thin and wobbily!" A faun complained, voice caught between embarrassed and concerned. His companions bopped his shoulder with a mild and fake aggression.

"Stop making things up! There's no fauns outside the group, Nule, and certainly none like that."

"No, I swear I saw her! She even had an unclipped tail, and when I tried to ask her about it she looked at me like I was gonna bite her and ran off! Why would I make this up?" Nule whined at the disbelief. Leeyoon had come to a full halt at the edge of the clearing across from the pair. This story was.. peculiar. An unclipped tail on an antisocial faun? Two impossibilities that contradicted his understandings of the world.

"Because you like telling stories an' fibbin'!"

"Meela!" Nule whined, but Meela only smirked, as if she won a secret game. "I can prove it, I can! I saw her just past the northern limits of-"

"Oh, stuff it. I believe you, now can we just leave it?"

"Shouldn't we do something about her?"

"You tried; she didn't seem to eager to be helped, so let her live with that." Meela shrugged. Nule thought on that for a minute, and then shrugged in compliance, and both went back to their breakfasts and more common conversation.

Leeyoon, however, was still halted at the edge of the clearing. He wasn't usually one to be conscious of other people, but something struck him about this supposed solitary faun. He couldn't put a finger on it, but he felt a strong pull, or connection. A curiosity, at the least, he supposed.

As a leader, he had often previously put on a show of being compassionate and magnanimous and considerate. He would have made a grand show of going after this clearly crazed creature, of bringing her back to society and being her personal hero, but he wasn't performing that role any more, not in any sense of the word.

But.

But, he couldn't imagine going back to his home and sitting in the dark, beyond the depths where illuminating plants grew and where fauns slept and ran and lived, and staying there, not knowing this. He couldn't imagine that he wouldn't just sit there and wonder about that faun, lost and unwell, for what faun avoided her own kind? What faun had never had her tail clipped?

And, like that, more and more his thoughts were consumed with a need for answers. If she was a myth, he would soon know. And, if she were real, he'd know how she came to be the way she was.

Leeyoon slipped into the woods, heading north.

It was nearly day when he was almost ready to give up. His feet hurt from misuse and their sudden expedition, his back ached from being upright so long, and even his eyes hurt from the exposure to light, even the gentle lights of the flora around him and the moon in the far distance making his head ache. This discomfort had quickly turned to a seething attitude, but even that old feeling wasn't quite as deep as this strange need to know, and so he kept going.

He hadn't seen any sign of unusual activity, having wandered out of the fauns usual territory into less tamed woods, but he followed nearly the entire northern 'border' on the words of the faun Nule, and wasn't done looking. His ears and nose were weak compared to fauns, but his sight was immaculate; if there was a chance she was real and had left signs of being out here, he would undoubtedly find them.

It was difficult to fight the agitation of the struggle, but something about that felt.. invigorating. He hadn't tried to do anything in so long.. even if this search was fruitless, he thought, it was the most he'd done in quite a while.

Or, if he were being honest, it was probably the biggest thing he'd ever done, for he'd never done anything outside the shadow of his supposed destiny.

He wasn't sure if he liked that thought, but he didn't have time to really reflect on it, because that's when he found her.

Quietly, almost unnaturally so, even for a faun, she was walking just twenty paces or so ahead of him, and she was just as Nule had described. Her gait was uneven, unbalanced, her cloven hooves stumbling, only barely catching her weight beneath her. Her fur was paler than any other faun's he'd ever seen, and true enough her tail was as long as she was tall, thick and muscled and fluffy with wavy hair at the end. Leeyoon had never seen an adult faun with an unclipped tail, as it was tradition to remove them before the faun's first year was up. It was an issue of balance and health- ancient books told that more often than not the tails of fauns were how they were caught by the few creatures who would prey on them, that they were too weak and broke and caused illness. The books were unclear how, exactly, but the tradition remained.

The fact that this faun had survived to adulthood, tail intact, interested Leeyoon all the more. He hesitated, though, because he remembered what else Nule had said, that she'd been aggressive. Leeyoon wondered now if she was sick; she was antisocial, according to Nule, and no faun that he'd ever met behaved that way unless they were very unwell, and the same was especially true of aggression.

Still. He wanted to know.

Quietly, he cleared his throat and tested his voice, and when he felt satisfied with the sound he could produce, he called out, "Faun!"

Like pale blue lightning, her head whipped around, eyes latching onto him almost immediately. Leeyoon was struck still with shock, her eyes showing nothing but fear. There was a tense second of stillness, her fullbody fur ruffling from hoof to tail to shoulder.

And then she ran.


	2. Chapter 2

Leeyoon couldn't say why, in the moment, why he was bolting after her. His mind was immediately in a moment of chase, of need, of want, and he followed her. A part of him thought it was absurd, absurd to be chasing her and moreso to be out here at all, but he was already here, already running, and he did so desperately want to understand.

The faun, pale and striped, ran on all fours, bounding like Leeyoon had never seen a faun move before. Even the children, who instinctively moved on fours at first, were nothing like the chaotic precision of this creature. He wondered if she was a faun at all, or if she was some kind of something else. His well learned mind could think of nothing else that she could be, though, so he added the question to the list of those he intended to ask her if ever she stopped running.

"Wait!" He gasped out, barely keeping up. Well, it wasn't quite true that he wasn't quick enough to keep pace with her, as her method of travel was messy, and she tripped and slipped as often as she made and landed daring leaps or swings.

"Wait!" Leeyoon called again, and she turned her head, ears lurching in his direction. It was just a half second of attention, but it was a half second where her attention was not on her escape. Her hands caught the ground poorly, the wet earth giving way beneath her, and she slid on all fours face first into a tree. Leeyoon hissed in a breath of worry, gritting his teeth. That had not been his intention.

She crumpled into the base of the tree, long tail crooking as it fell about behind her.

Leeyoon mumbled a string of curses and dashed over, out of breath and sore and wondering why, again, he was out here, why he chased her, why she ran, why, why why why whywhywhy? He stumbled to his knees at her side, turned her over just in time to see her whimpering open. Her gaze passed over him, but she didn't seem to see him, though her whole body tensed. Her eyes were blurred and red and hazy, and by the gods she was thin. Unhealthily thin, her muscles tightly knit beneath loose skin and thin, wispy fur. Leeyoon had never seen any creature in such terrible condition that was still alive.

"What in the world..?" He'd breathed out, caught succinctly in a moment of utter confusion, the reality of the night hitting him like a slap in the face. His words, the sound of them, registered in the ears of the faun, her ears perking up, eyes flashing wide open and finally seeing him. Once again there was nothing but fear in her eyes- but only a moment.

Her face twisted into a furious hiss, her apparent fear replaced with rage, and Leeyoon reeled back from her as she threw herself up the tree that had caught her so unkindly. Leeyoon watched her gracelessly scramble up the tree. He felt his face as it closed from the open, wide shocked expression to one of anger.

How dare she? He was only trying to help, after all! How dare she hiss at him. He felt his scowl deepen as he stared up at her, somewhere amongst the colorful branches. What was wrong with her?

Then he looked down at the deep skid marks, left in the wet earth for a good five paces before indenting before him. They were easily visible, but something about them didn't make sense… No.

No, he was done with being curious. Fine, he thought, he found the damn faun, and she was as ridiculous as Nule had said, and the questions he'd had were no longer as important to him as he'd thought they were.

He stalked off, following the tracks of their chase back home. It would be day soon, and he was tired, and this had all been a horrid waste of time. And yet, his eyes kept fast on the tracks, and he recounted the running, and noticed the fine details. There was both a deftness and a blundering marked by her tracks, just as he'd seen her in motion, but watching it backwards he discovered why: she'd cut her palms early on in their chase. He even found the exact moment it had happened, too, the smear on the rocks just behind the hill he'd seen her on was still wet and red.

Leeyoon stopped. He couldn't go home and leave her like this, could he, now that he knew? She was up in that tree, had climbed it, with bloody hands. He felt guilty, and then he felt rage. If she hadn't have run, she wouldn't have gotten hurt, would she?

Then again, if he hadn't startled her, she wouldn't have run, would she?

His eyes landed on a star shaped pod, the fruit of a fairly common plant. It grew low to the ground, and could be eaten if left to dry. But, the flesh and the juice within that pod had anesthetic properties while wet.

Leeyoon picked a couple of the larger, the plants alighting at his touch, a sign of health, and he let out a low hum of gratitude. Quietly, he retraced his path back to the tree, and left the fruit at the base for the faun. If she found it, excellent. If not, well, he tried.

Leeyoon couldn't sleep that day, try as he might. The sun had passed overhead and it was well into morning before he crawled into his watery cavern of a bedroom, and he was exhausted. He hadn't been as active as he had that night in a long time. He thought he'd just fall asleep, having earned it, but though the water comforted him and was pleasant,he did not lull or drift or even seem to relax. He just lay in the water and thought.

Like so many times and so many days since Mune took the moon, Leeyoon only thought of all that he had done. The years of work, the slow accustomisation to the social power his position granted him, the slow creep of arrogance and acceptance and then.. and then having it all taken away. It was a horrible moment, and he'd raged- how couldn't he? His whole life had been for that moment, and then it was torn away from him! And then the deal he'd made, and then..

Well, Mune proved up to the task, and he had not. And now, ever since, he could only replay those terrible desicions over and over, hating himself.

What was he doing? What was today about? Why had he done that, gone seeking trouble?

Well, that whole business was over, he supposed. He'd done it, whyever he'd done it, and it wasn't satisfying or illuminating or, or whatever he'd thought it would be. He still felt miserable.

The day passed and still he did not sleep, and he gave a great sigh when he felt the moon come over the horizon. It wouldn't be properly night for a while and not even the fauns would be up for some time after that, but seeing as he hadn't slept, Leeyoon decided to crawl once more from the water, feeling no more rested than he had when he'd crawled in.

As he'd suspected, not a single faun was out, the last glimmers of gold from the day still bleeding into night, the moon just on his side of the horizon. The world seemed empty, devoid of their life and their song, but at the same time, he did not want to wait to see them come awake, perform their duties, or hear their songs. He didn't know what he wanted, if he was honest. All he knew, and more and more could accept, was that he was miserable.

He wondered if anyone else in the world was miserable, as miserable as he was, or even at all, and then he remembered the faun in the forest, alone and so poorly off. What creature could look like her and not be miserable? A flash of guilt burned his mind for all the vile things he'd thought about her in his anger, and for causing her to injure herself when he chased her.

He felt he still owed her for that, at least, and it was clear to him, even as sleepless as he'd been, that she likely needed the help. And, of course, the more he thought about it, the more questions he had. How had she come to be this way? Why? Was she alone, and where did she come from? Why was she so afraid?

Well, he was going to try to find out. Perhaps trying again would serve him well. Nule hadn't implied he'd try to speak with her again, so maybe it was only strangers she feared. He was still less than an acquaintance to her, of course, but he wouldn't be new any more.

But, before he went.. he dropped to his knees at one of the community gardens, sang to a fruit bearing plant, asking it to give him a gift for a friend, and took the humble fruit it provided. Standing, he hummed his thanks as he had to the starfruit just that morning, and left to find the faun again.


	3. Chapter 3

The walk was much quicker this time, as he wasn't combing a border to find a hint of a rumor. He headed right to the tree where he'd last seen the faun, and he was there by the time it was fully evening. However, as he approached, he kept quiet. If it was his fault for startling the faun last night, he would not do so again.

First, he thought, he should find out if she was even still here, or if she had moved on in the day. He wouldn't be surprised if she'd found her way far away from this place, if this was all just another foolish endeavor by a foolish man who had no plans or purpose. To his delighted surprise, he found the shells of the starfruit at the base of the tree, where he had left them. More surprising was the fact that she left no tracks. He thought for a moment that an animal had eaten them, but they were too cleanly split open for some thoughtless creature in the night to have eaten them.

Likewise, there were no tracks around the tree anywhere else, and the tree seemed to him too distant from any others for her to have leapt from it neatly. So, was she still in the tree? Holding the fruit in one hand, he rubbed the tips of his fingertips on the other together. He was nervous. The night prior he'd apparently frightened her into a delirious chase just by saying, 'faun'. How was he to not do the same now?

He edged closer to the tree. To an outside observer he might seem terrified of the tree itself, thinking that it would bite him, but truly he only feared startling the faun. What would the point of all this be if he scared her again? What was the point, even now? He still didn't have a clear idea in mind beyond simple curiosity, and the knowledge that he really didn't have anything else to do. And, well, what if he was helpful? That would be nice, wouldn't it?

A moment of trepidation passed, and he finally raised a hand and gave the tree a good, healthy knock. The sound rang out from the solid wood, and then there was quiet.

"Faun?" He called up the tree, with quiet and trembling hope. There was no response.

"Faun, I.. I don't know if you can hear me, but I've come to.. to give you a gift?" He sounded fake, unsure, and honestly like a child begging for forgiveness. "I've come to apologize, that is. I did not mean to startle you. I did also bring a gift.. You appear rather thin, if you don't mind me saying-" Gods above, was this how normal people talked to each other? He sounded like a damn fool! "- and I thought you could use- that you might like something fresh and refreshing?"

To the open air he held up the fruit and gave the best smile he could. It felt fake, as if he'd never smiled before. Had ever smiled genuinely before? He remembered how to smile with charm, but had he ever smiled to make a friend?

Oh. Was that what this was about? Did he just want a friend?

He'd never needed a friend before, never wanted one, but he was also expecting to be someone who lived on the moonbeast's back, away from society, performing a sacred, and longlasting, duty. Perhaps some part of him wanted to replace a duty with a companion? Well, even so, why'd it have to be a complete stranger? He could pick any faun from the community and stoke a relationship out of that, couldn't he?

But, as he thought about it, he thought that, no, he probably couldn't. They all knew he'd been possessed by Necros' corruption demons, those eels, that he'd sabotaged Sohone and hadn't helped Mune, that the first moon itself had died in his hands.. They were not unkind to him, but surely it would be awkward, too awkward, to navigate around this truth.

Still, could he not go home?

Go home, to his family?

No, oh heavens, no. If he returned there now, it would be in shame. At least they still thought highly of him. If they never saw him again, they would think he was the moon guardian, would think he was important and special and, selfishly, he liked the idea of having at least that lie of respect for his life.

So if he wanted a friend, he'd better find an ignorant stranger.

And still yet, he couldn't justify tricking a stranger into that position. He let out a deep sigh, placed the fruit on the stone next to the starfruit shells, and began to walk away. This really had just been a foolish endeavor, and now he had more thoughts to torment him, more decisions to question, more life choices to regret. Better that he be home to think of them all, at least.

There was a sound, though, that halted him- pap, pap- the slapping of a hand on a tree. He turned around to find the pale faun nearly upside down on the trunk of the tree, hanging from her tail by a branch, hand and hooves balancing her between three others. She looked at him questioningly, perhaps not with trust, but with a curiosity on par with his own.

"Hello." Leeyoon said, after a moment. The faun only twitched her nose, a formal, noiseless greeting. "I- I brought you that.." He pointed at the fruit on the stone, and saw her sniff deeply at it. "It's fresh, I assure you."

She crawled out on the branch and latched her long tail around it once she was further out. Then, she threw herself off the branch, swinging around and grabbing the fruit in one motion, swinging deftly back around to sit on the branch. Leeyoon blinked in surprise, but then with delight realized that was how she left no tracks. A simple but effective trick!

The faun sniffed the fruit again, cocked her head, and took a small bite. Leeyoon tried not to watch too closely, feeling that it might be rude, but her motions were interesting. She seemed just as well wired in her smaller actions as her larger ones; there was a sense of purpose and even grace, but it was marred by an erratic movement that seemed unintentional. He studied some medicine, of course; you couldn't have a Guardian that couldn't take care of themself! But, none of that studying helped him now. He couldn't tell what was wrong with the faun by looking at her.

Her eyes whipped up at him suddenly, but he was so startled by the sharpness of her eyes that he couldn't look away, even in shame. She stared at him for a moment, then took a bite of the fruit and held it there. With one hand she reached up to her forehead and pulled it away sharply, some of her fingers curling down as she did, then sweeping into a motion to point at him, digging two fingers in his direction.

"What?" He asked, but she frowned, and only repeated the motion. He shook his head, and if he'd had a nose it would have curled in annoyance. As it was, his face was quite quickly becoming the portrait of frustration, as was hers. With a deep sigh she rolled her eyes, repeated the first two motions, and then gestured with both hands this time in small circles at her abdomen, palms up.

"What in the world are you doing?" Leeyon let out his frustration in a near whine. "Why don't you just _speak_?"

She inhaled sharply around the fruit, clearly incensed. Her fur bristled and she seemed pinned to the moment, deciding whether or not to assault him. She spat out the fruit, the not-even-half-eaten thing landing at his feet, then gestured with two fists, one fully closed and palm up, the other with two fingers out, and then away from herself, and began climbing up the tree, hastily and furious.

"Where do you think you're going!? I'm still_ talking_ to you!" Leeyoon snarled up at her, but she turned and snarled back, gripping her cheek with one hand before continuing up, all the more furious.

"What's that supposed to mean!? Get back down here!" He paced at the foot of the tree, breathing harder than he need to in his anger, but she didn't respond, already gone in the leaves of the tree top. "Oh! Fine! Fine, stay up in your stupid tree, you stupid, feral.. idiot!"

Leeyoon let out a roar of a sigh and stomped away, grumbling to himself about the folly of coming out here not once, but twice on some stupid feeling. He felt angry and childish and tired, and he was perfectly happy to blame it on the apparently wordless faun for making him worry about her. If she had the energy to make fun of him with stupid hand waving, then she was probably just fine, didn't need his help, and was just a jerk who hated other people.

Oh, and she'd even spat out his gift! He grit his teeth at that, at feeling sorry for her and worrying at all. She must have been fine, to ridicule him like that and waste such a gift!

Leeyoon was so furious that he didn't even realize that he was back at the community, having stomped and grumbled his whole way home. He'd missed all of the early evening activities, though, and the fauns were dispersed to do whatever they were wont to do for the bulk of the night, so he didn't really bother anyone, not that he would have noticed or cared.

Similarly, as he was still stomping his way through the open area of the community, still grumbling and bemoaning the rudeness of the faun up the tree, too preoccupied with his fuming rage that he did not notice the wax girl, even as he ran into her.


	4. Chapter 4

"Hey, watch it!" The wax girl shouted as she shoved him away. She was surprisingly strong for someone of her size, as in someone smaller than Leeyoon. He wasn't used to being pushed around, and that was the sole reason he stopped, rather than plow on by her. It took a second, too, to realize that it was still the middle of the night, and that no wax girl should be out and about at that hour.

No wax girl, except-

"You?" Leeyoon said, quite wisely.

"Yeah?" She said, after a long moment.

"What- what are you doing here?" He finally managed. She looked at him for another hard moment, as if she _didn't_ know why he didn't know why she was here.

"I come here every other week?" She said. "I haven't seen you around. Maybe I should ask what _you're_ doing here."

"I- I _live_ here!"

"Do you? I really haven't seen you around, you know, uh.." She twirled her hand in the air, searching for- "Leeyoon." -his name. He was offended, of course, that she didn't even know his name, that she was here at all.

"Right." He scoffed, and turned away, crossing his arms behind his back with dignity. "Forgive me if I don't feel the need to entertain guests to a community that's not even mine." He sneered, and tried to appear cold.

"Right." The wax girl replied, looked at him for a moment, and then turned away. "I've got to be going now."

Leeyoon turned his head to track her, watched her dip down into some faun's den without him, without even looking back. Being ignored like that stung, and more than he enjoyed admitting. He hesitated in the clearing, unsure what to do. He was now very curious about Mune's wax girl, what she was doing in his- or, rather, in the faun's community, but he daren't display _interest_, as he'd just declared that he wasn't interested in being interested in other people.

The wax girl, however, stepped out of the den with a faun at her heels. She was saying something to the faun, who smiled and then did something very strange. Leeyoon would have considered it far stranger, however, if he hadn't seen someone else do it recently. The faun, of undeterminable gender, moved their hands around, seeming to emote along with the gestures. Most odd of all was the wax girl, who reacted as if the faun had just told a funny joke, smiling and laughing.

It suddenly made sense.

The feral faun wasn't _mocking_ him. She was _speaking_, just not with words, with her _hands_, and he was a damn fool for not realizing it in the first place. He'd known about it, about this and other fauns right under his own supervision who could not or would not speak with audible words and instead spoke with visible ones. He'd never bothered to learn how to speak it, being too 'important' for most fauns to speak to at all, and it had never come up.

He would have smacked himself if he weren't in the middle of the clearing, and if the wax girl wasn't approaching him again.

"Is this how you spend your time nowadays? Standing still and doing nothing?"

"No, no, I.. Where did you learn to do that?"

"Do what?"

"Speak in hands."

"_Sign_?" She asked with exasperation.

"Yes." Leeyoon said quite flatly. He felt ridiculous, but she didn't need to know that.

Once again she sort of just stared at him, squinting like that would help her read him any better, but of course it didn't. "I learned from my books, and practiced with my neighbors, and the librarian."

"Hmm." He said, but what he really wanted to ask was if he would show her, but that meant admitting interest, and he didn't want to appear foolish to her.

"What's this about?"

"Oh, nothing. I'm thinking of picking up a new hobby, and that seems like a, ah, useful one." He lied, though it wasn't entirely a lie. It _would_ be useful.

"You mean you don't already know? Weren't you trained, you know, to be a leader?" She looked him up and down, taking a defensive stance, though she had just called _him_ out, and not the other way around. If he could blush, he would have, for her words stung and infuriated him again.

"Of _course_, but that didn't include learning handspeak. We're trained to be self sufficient, to guide others from afar, and to know about how the broader world works in order to do so." He nearly huffed, but controlled himself. That annoying squeak of emotion came through in his voice, however, and he felt all the more irked for it.

"I see." She raised an eyebrow, then adjusted the bag on her shoulder. "Well, since you're so eager to take up this new hobby, you could probably start with Siah, or if you're too above actually talking to other people, you could go by the library. The books there have tons of sign dictionaries." She said, and began to walk away.

Leeyoon trailed after her, however, "I'm not_ above_ **anything**," he sneered.

"Maybe not anymore." She said with a point.

"What's _that_ to mean?"

"Mune told me about you. You're one of those mister high-and-mighty jerks who lets their position get to their head. You think you're better than the common people, because they're common, and you're _oh so special_. Well, you're not the guardian, or even a guardian in training anymore. You're _not_ so special, but I bet the ego ride is hard to get off of, huh?"

"I-" He started, but couldn't finish, too overcome. She'd cut to the heart of his months-long melancholy in just a matter of a few sentences. He stopped in place, unable to follow her, and just grit his teeth. To his surprise, she stopped as well.

"Mune also told me he thinks you could be a pretty nice guy, if you could get over yourself. Well, I think the second part. He already thinks you're a pretty nice guy, but don't go letting that get to your head either." She said, looking at her feet, feeling bad for having cut him so easily. "If you do decide to go to the library, you'll want to go close to dawn, I think. It won't be too warm for you yet, and they open as soon as the librarian wakes up." She advised him, then smiled, just a little, and headed off into the woods. Leeyoon did not follow her. He stood there, opening and closing his hands and feeling small and childish and quite, quite horribly lost.

But she turned back, smiling a little wider and more enthusiastically and called, "Oh, and tell them I sent you." Then, with a wave, she was gone for real, disappearing into the forest.

Leeyoon, a little too late, waved back, and then turned and walked back the way he came.

He spent the next few days, first sleeping, then thinking deeply about what had happened. His own motives still eluded him, even in hindsight. Part of him claimed it was boredom, part of him claimed it was curiosity, but he felt that truly neither of those things were entirely true. After sleeping restlessly, he thought on this for two days, sleeping off and on again intermittently. He did not dream, he never had, but his thoughts never let him deeply enough into sleep to properly escape them.

The whole while he was reflecting on his actions, he thought about the faun in the forest, and he wondered if she was still mad at him. He was flush with shame for ridiculing her, thinking that she had been mocking him, acting like a pretentious and self-righteous child the whole time under the pretense of being anything but. Like always, he'd been trying to be the image of maturity, decision-making and wise and so calm, but a few gestures had rendered him acting like the brat he really was.

Furthermore, he hoped she was alright, and that she hadn't left or gone too far. He'd thought briefly about making her his friend, but it seemed impossible, and sort of wrong to try to force her into that position. He really just needed to apologize, his curiosity or whatever be damned. He was making so many mistakes, and he wanted to clear some of them before..

Well, that didn't matter much.

It took a while to get over the shame of his encounter with both the faun and the wax girl, but he'd decided he would try to fix at least one of those situations. Seeing as the wax girl was likely with Mune on the moonbeast temple, finding the faun was more realistic, though finding a decent way to apologize in that scenario was going to be more work upfront.

After deciding this, he rested for a night, and woke in the late night, and started the walk to the dusk community before Sohone had walked the sun across the horizon.


	5. Chapter 5

He trudged through the woods of night into the mountains and hills that marked the day territories, and then past that, north, to the community of dusk and dawn. It was a long trek, longer than it took to get to the tree of the feral faun, even that first night when he travelled the length of the fauns' northern territories, and it was well into morning when he got there.

It was a hike up a small hill, under sun and canopy both, spread out between houses and other businesses. It didn't seem to make sense how the town was divided, what with the residents and presumed chief constructors being made of wax, prone to melting in too-hot weather and direct sunlight. There were many areas that didn't quite connect, that left the residents little choice but to leap for safety in shadow across stretches of sunlit path. Leeyoon felt baked by the time he'd made it to the library, a building at the top of the gently sloping hill that most of the community, and he honestly wondered how the wax people did _anything_. If he felt so weak and worn, and he was of much stronger substance, how could they live like this?

However, he didn't see anyone on his way. Not inside their houses, and not out. There were definite signs of life, though, so it wasn't that they weren't there, just that they weren't making themselves known. Perhaps it was that it was nearly noon, and they were resting, hiding away from the sun, though Leeyoon didn't know enough about the wax people to know if they even could rest during the day.

His only real priority, amongst all these questions, was to visit the library. He figured that as long as there was someone there, he'd be okay. He could ask his questions and be on his way, out of the sun.

The door was surprisingly heavy for being nothing but fabric, but it was nothing he couldn't handle. Slipping inside, thankfully out of the sun, he called, "Hello?"

No one answered, and he groaned and looked about. There was a desk just to his left, and then rows and rows of tall shelves stretching as wide as the building. It was bigger than he expected, and dark. All around the edges of the room and at the corners and midpoints of each of the shelves there were glowing stones that cast an orange light about the room.

"Sun stones." He murmured. He knew of them, but he'd never seen even one before. Now, there possibly thirty or forty just in his line of sight alone! He'd learned in his studies that they were precious gifts, pieces of day people's stone hearts left behind after their lives had ended, and that to be given one was a magnificent gift. They were supposedly warm enough to allow a wax person to travel at night without fear of freezing, which was where they received their other names from; travel stones.

To see so many in one place was almost morbid, knowing where they came from, but it made the library seem magical. If all of them were gifts, then this place was sacred, well loved enough to be the final resting place of the literal hearts of multiple stone people.

Enchanted, Leeyoon began to wander the library. Many of the tomes were scrolls, many of them on parchment so thick and old and worn that he dared not touch them for fear of his always damp skin ruining their ancient words. The books he'd learned from were copied from these, much newer, and written in the night language. Most of these were written in the sun language that was far more common only because the night people traditionally preferred to pass knowledge down orally.

He'd studied the sun language, though, and so he was not concerned with deciphering any of their meanings. He simply didn't know where to look for what he needed. The wax girl had_ said_ there was a librarian, so where..?

"Hello there, deary." Came a soft voice from the far side of the library. Leeyoon looked up from the tome that had caught his eye, _The History of the World: Part 25_, to see a wax person standing at the end of the aisle he had been perusing. He stood up as they approached, and soon found himself towering over them.

"What have we got here? A denizen of the night, in my humble library?" The wax person cooed with interest. They were old; no longer neatly formed in the shape of the Original Denizens, now hulking and faded into a simulacra of what they once were. Their wax cracked with their movement, heavy and stiff and in huge, visible droplets. Their eyes, though, were clear despite their age, and looked him sharply up and down.

"Yes." Leeyoon nodded as the wax individual came to a stop before him. "I hope you don't mind my presence here."

"Not at all, not at all, deary. Simply unexpected. I haven't had many visitors in quite a while, not since Glim read every book and began to write her own, and I certainly haven't had many of the night folk in to see me since long before she was formed."

"Glim?" Leeyoon said, then realized- that was the wax girl who'd told him to come here. He hadn't even gotten her name! He'd only known that she went with Mune now, and hadn't bothered to ask her! "Glim, yes. She sent me, actually."

"Oh? How is my night owl?"

"Well. She travels the night with the new guardian."

"A new guardian? Goodness, how the time flies! I remember when Yule and Xolal took charge, dear, I never thought I'd live long enough for another naming, let alone live through it and not even know!" The librarian chuckled. "She travels with the night, you say? That sounds about right, that girl."

"Hmm." Leeyoon nodded.

"I take it she didn't send you here to update me on her life's events, though, dear. What can Kindle do for you today?" Kindle squinted, eying him up and down again, as if to piece together his desires from his stance alone. Leeyoon cleared his throat and stepped back, subconsciously intimidated and out of his depth.

"She recommended I come here for instructions on learning handspeak- that is, sign, ah, language." He said.

"Ah." Kindle nodded. "She mastered it as a young child. This way." They nodded again, and turned themself around, waving for him to follow. He did, trailing along a few steps behind . They spoke to themself now and again, apparently thinking out loud, and Leeyoon didn't know how to respond to any of it. They mumbled and murmured of things that were two or three generations older than himself, of things they needed to do, snippets of sentences scraping together and falling apart without a proper response or recipient.

"Here we are, deary." They said after a long walk down another aisle several rows over from the one Leeyoon had started in. "Everything you need to know about sign, oh, but, do you read sun? All of these are in common, which-"

"Takes most strongly after the sun symbols, yes, I know. I can read them well enough." Leeyoon nodded to the books with a bit of an eyeroll. Before him was an entire shelf of books, top to bottom and about as wide as he could stretch his arms, that were just what he was looking for.

"A well read denizen of the night, eh? It's not common of your people to read or write at all, let alone the sun symbols." Kindle nodded approvingly. "Who are you, daywalker?"

"I'm no daywalker. I simply came when it would be easiest to get what I need." He huffed, and thought of their question, settling, finally, "I'm no one. No one of importance."

"I don't believe that for a second. No one is unimportant. Still, if you don't know who you're important to, then that's something to be learned that can't be found in a book." Kindle chuckled again,their wax hair rolling down their round cheeks. There was a sun stone just above them, heating their wax. "I'd settle for a name, though, deary."

"..Leeyoon." He gave after a moment, looking away. If they knew him, would they treat him different?

"Leeyoon. A good name."

"Thank you." He allowed himself to look at them again, but they were looking at the books, nodding. "Where should I start?"

"Start? Hmm. Hmm, oh, I'd say.." Kindle tsked, and ran a blackened finger over the tops of the books, actual books rather than scrolls, and delicately plucked three of them out by their top corners. "These are the most concise for beginners, and this one-" they tapped a small, wide, blue-bound book, "-is a dictionary for active use. The others are more instructional in the construction of sentences, and will teach you how to say what you mean to say, but this one will teach you the words themselves. Of course, it may be outdated. Like all languages, the words of sign are wont to change with time." They said, and Leeyoon slowly took the books into his arms, until Kindle spoke up, nodding again, "I suppose we should get you set up with a library card."

"A card? What for?"

"Believe me, dear, you'll want to take at least the one with you, and the library closes ten to sundown. You might be able to read all these before then, but that's no time to practice or really_ learn_ any of it." Kindle shook their head. "Come, come, let's get you started." They commanded,and led him away. They seemed to have made up their mind, and so he followed.

Kindle went around the front desk while he plopped the books on the desk and sighed. This was more than he'd bargained for, but there was no point arguing now. Kindle took out a small, perfectly formed sheet of paper with lines already written on it and handed it to him.

"Just fill it out to the best of your ability, deary, and you'll be on your way." They smiled, their waxy wrinkles curling with earnest and gentle delight. Leeyoon sighed again and took the paper as well as the charcoal stick they offered. So that was how their hands had come to be stained; the charcoal they wrote with becoming integrated into their wax over their very long life.

Leeyoon looked down at his hands, so different from theirs. The charcoal rubbed off on his hand, the wet of his fingers rejected by the wax infused paper, but the charcoal would wash off, and the wax wouldn't cling to him. They'd dedicated their life to this place, this duty, and the signs of it were marked on their whole form. He, on the other hand, didn't appear to be dedicated to anything. His love of the moon and his dedication to being her guardian had left no marks on him, none that a stranger could see, anyway.

With a third sigh, he filled out the form and signed his name.


	6. Chapter 6

With his paperwork filled out, Kindle gave him a small card bearing his name and restrictions within the library, as well as an identification number for reference's sake, and she sent him on his way to get reading. As she'd said, the four larger books were about the linguistics of the language, the rules and the codes, and it honestly overwhelmed him almost immediately. He hadn't had to learn new grammar since, well, since he'd been a child! He'd never learned another language before, and despite what he'd thought it seemed to him that he was learning something entirely new.

He let out a groan, slid the books away and across the table, and placed his head in the now empty space. He had no idea what he was doing or why. He felt lost and confused and quite stupid.

"Frustrated, deary?" Kindle's voice appeared. Reactively, Leeyoon lifted his head from the table to find them standing across from him, smiling gently.

"A.. a bit." He admitted.

"Not to worry, it's a bit difficult on the uptake, but it gets easier." They nodded thoughtfully. "Should you like any help?"

"No, I.. well, I don't know."

"Don't know?" Leeyoon only shook his head in response. "What's not to know? Do you want to know how to use this tool, this gift, or don't you?"

"I.. I really don't know." He shrugged, staring down at the images and symbols. Kindle looked down at him, staring with deep intent for several moments, then sat down across from him.

"Why are you really here, deary? You're here for a reason, I can tell, and it may even be the one you've told me, but something tells me that's not all. Something's driven you here. What's been chasing you, my little daywalker?"

"I'm still not a daywalker." He huffed. "What does it matter what I'm here for? I'm here, aren't I?"

"Oh, yes, this is true. No matter what, you are already here. But perhaps where you're coming from shall impact the way you go, yes. Give that a bit of thought." They chuckled. "Where _are_ you coming from, dear?"

"No where." He sighed.

"I don't believe that, dear. Tell me. What's brought you here?"

"I'd rather not say." He barked, his hands turning to fists on the table. Kindle looked down at the tightness, the whiteness of his knuckles, and nodded with a sigh of their own.

"Very well, deary. But no one can help you without knowing the details." They said, and got up. "By the by, it's nearly closing, dear, and you'll need to be moving on. You can take as many books as you like, but I need to know before you go, yes." They nodded again.

Leeyoon looked over the books, knowing that he understood next to nothing, taken aback by the fact that so many hours had passed without him gaining anything from his attempts, and settled for the field guide. He tapped a finger on it,

"Just this one."

"Very well, dear." Kindle nodded and took the rest of the books. "It's due back in four weeks, or you'll need to check in with me. I expect you back, on time." They said, and walked away, carrying the books in their thick and sturdy arms. Leeyoon watched them go for a time, feeling equal parts discontent and grateful.

He was charmed by Kindle's gentle approach to assistance, but he was still miserable. He had the field guide now, but he still didn't know what he was doing with it. He didn't _really_ know why he felt so intent on going back to the faun- who's name he still didn't even know- but he did know that he was. Perhaps it was just a desire for a friend, but he didn't know the faun, and couldn't explain why he thought he really ought to.

Still, he had the card, had the book, had nothing else to do, and so took the book and started on his way out. Pushing the cloth aside, he could see the sky turning blue, bleeding golds and oranges at the edges, the hallmark of dusk.

"See you soon, Leeyoon." Kindle called from the desk, their form already hardening in the rapidly cooling air. Leeyoon was surprised they were hardening with all the sunstones around, but there wasn't any time to ask. They waved, and their hand hardened mid motion. A drip of wax fell off their hand, hardening as a long string just barely attached to their wrist.

Leeyoon nodded, and took his book with him, heading into the night.

As he went, he kept reading, practicing, picking out the words he wanted to say. The only problem was that some of them were two handed, and he quickly forgot some of the orders of some the words in his apology. He groaned each time he realized he'd messed up, resorting to stopping to practice whole sentences, memorizing as best he could before moving on.

By dawn, he had most of what he wanted to say figured out, and he was nearly home. His head swam with information and he'd confused himself at least ten times, but he had the book and he was home. He left the book on a dry leaf above water level, and slipped into his aquatic bed.

He slept through the night and half of the day, but his rest was without any true respite. He didn't dream, he never had, but he was particularly aware of his form in the water, his mind not truly off, and that felt like a dream. It was a miserable dream, where nothing happened but the dripping of water from rock and lichen into more water, where he breathed in the cold and laid in the bottom of the pool and did not move.

He roused himself from his restless slumber midday, and crawled out of his den with the book, though he had to wait to let his hands dry enough to touch it without harm. The pages were infused with wax, held and read by wax people before him, but even then he didn't want to risk it.

The sun was high overhead, and it was hot for the time of year, so Leeyoon kept to the shade, sitting below one of the larger trees around the clearing. He wouldn't dry out there, and the light wasn't bad in the dapples sunlight. It was a bit brighter than he'd like, and warmer, of course, but if he wasn't going to get any decent sleep, he might as well practice his words.

His hands were clumsy without sleep, but his mind was still sharp, and he felt more capable of memorizing not just the order of the words he wanted to say, but the meaning of the words themselves. It felt pleasant to _understand_, to _know_.

The only thing was that he recognized one of the words she'd used, as he'd intended to use it in his apology. A grip of the cheek; rude. She'd been calling him out for being rude. And rude he certainly had been, a trait he'd picked up and maintained for longer than he liked.

This whole thing was just adding more questions to his life and his mind and they were no doubt part of why he struggled to sleep lately. Still, gripping his cheek and pondering his behavior, he felt better for examining it rather than trying to ignore it. He was taking steps to make amends, wasn't he? That had to mean something.

The sky turned gold before he felt comfortable with the words he'd put to mind, a scant forty or so that were either part of his apology speech or that he thought would be useful or common. He was afraid to not understand her should he find her and successfully deliver his apology, and he knew that these few words would not be enough, but he also knew that the longer he waited, the longer he would continue to wait, until he simply didn't go. He considered, still, waiting to go till the next night, to try to get some rest. No, he knew, that would not work. He'd only make himself nervous and put it off, on and on.

Leeyoon wrapped the book in a new leaf, should it decide to rain that night, and he felt a chill in the air that was becoming of rain, and rose to search once more for the faun. If he didn't find her tonight, he would search again the next, and after that he would be done with it. He'd have done all he could reasonably be expected to, and he could stop plaguing himself with questions of this or that, friendship and what have you.

He'd move on.

To what, though, he had no idea.


	7. Chapter 7

His trip to the faun's last known location was quicker than last time, aided by the coolness of the night air that was unusual but welcome for this time of year.

However, once he'd arrived, Leeyoon didn't know how to start. He knew he should first confirm that the faun was there before he started making grand apologies, but he was afraid. His heart pounded in his chest harder than it had since the moon had died in his hands, and he knew this was nothing as bad as that. Or was it? He was acting out of desperation and fear and want, though he still couldn't tell what it was that he wanted, and it hadn't turned out so well for him the first time, had it? What if all this went as poorly as that?

Well, he thought, if this ends in ruin at least the whole planet isn't on the line. He clutched the book in its leafy safety like a lifeline, remembered how it felt to hold the dying moon, and took a deep breath. It was only him on the line, this time, and this wasn't an act of wickedness.

And so he knocked on the tree. The sound echoed up the body and boughs of the mighty creature, likely twice as old as he was, but there was no return. He knocked again,

"Faun?" His voice cracked and carried, broken, up the tree stronger than the knock had gone, and he groaned that that was the sound he'd made. He watched the boughs for movement, now nervous that she'd heard him. Nothing.

He sighed, and began to look around for a sign of where she'd gone. The tree rustled behind him, and when he turned back around, the faun was hanging once more from a limb of the tree, but higher up, less trusting than even last time. Her expression was similarly sour and distrusting; he probably only had one chance to say what he wanted to say.

Leeyoon set his book, still wrapped in its leaf, on a stone at his feet and began, "I want to show you something." He cleared his throat, despite not needing his voice anymore.

He lifted a pointed finger to himself, 'I', made a grabbing motion with both hands towards himself, 'want', touched the tips of his pointer fingers together before him, 'to', and made a fist with his thumb extended, circling at his chest, 'apologize'.

The faun's ears perked up, her expression lighted, she almost seemed to smile, barely containing herself, and made her way down the tree. She sat on the same limb as before, just in front of Leeyoon. With her head cocked to the side, eyes studying him with a quietly hungry curiosity.

"R-right." Leeyoon blinked, and immediately forgot the rest of his words. He remembered what he wanted to say, just not how to say it, and he floundered for a second, running through what he'd already said, but it did nothing to bring back the next steps. "One- one moment, please."

He knelt down and peeled the leaf from off the book, flipped through it, but his markers were gone, rustled out of place as he'd gone. He tried to find the words by memory, but in his panic he couldn't find a single one that he wanted.

He gave out a deep groan and sank into the dirt and the grass, head in hand. "I'm sorry. That's not all I wanted to say, but I wanted to.. to make this grand gesture of things, I suppose, to show you I meant it. I was an ass- I _am_ ass, and I don't know why I've- no, that's a lie, I know why and how, I just- I just don't know why I _still_ am.. I don't know what I'm doing, and I shouldn't be making this _your_ problem, but.. here I am." Leeyoon chuckled miserably into his hands.

The world was quiet for a what felt like a long time around him, not even the wind or the birds disturbing his misery.

The faun tapped his shoulder, surprising him out of his daze. She hung from the branch, nearly upside down, tail fully extended to allow her to reach him. Leeyoon thought she might be mad at him, but instead she smiled and pointed at the book. She made a gesture he thought he recognized as 'words' and pointed again.

"Y-yes. I- I realized after I left that you were trying to talk, so I- I went to the library in the dusk community, a-and, well, I was trying to teach myself how to apologize. See how well that went.." He shook his head, but she shook her head back, and let go of the branch, coming to sit on the ground with him.

She picked up the abandoned book and flipped through it. She made the gesture for 'apology' and then pointed to a new word, two hands grasping flatly against the chest, 'accepted'.

"Really?"

The faun nodded and smiled widely. She flipped through the book again and made the gesture for 'teach', hands making circles pushed from the temple, and then pointed at him.

"Teach me? Teach me how to sign?" Leeyoon asked, tweaking his head curiously. "You'd put up with me that long?" The faun only shrugged with what looked like a chuckle, and he could only chuckle back, "Well, I won't say no."

The faun smiled at him, all her tenseness and apprehension gone. Leeyoon, similarly, no longer felt worried, he felt, at all. Now that the faun was at ease, so was he.

"Where do we start?" He asked, and she twitched her nose in thought, and flipped through the book quickly, eyes scanning the images faster than he could imagine doing. He supposed when your language was as dependent on recognizing subtle gestures as hers was, you could get pretty good at recognizing them quickly. It was different with words, because written language and spoken language weren't as linked. One could know one and not the other, but the language and images of hands were universal.

Leeyoon watched the faun flip through the book and realized with a horrible start, leaning back as if to jump away, "I don't know your name!"

The faun, still nameless, blinked, and pointed at him and motioned with two thumbs up in an opposite up and down motion. Leeyoon thought he recognized this as 'yours either'.

"Right, right, how terribly rude of me. I am- My- my name is Leeyoon." He said, coughing. It'd been a long time since he'd had to introduce himself. For several years now his reputation and position had preceded him. He'd forgotten what it felt like to say his own name, and it felt awkward and heavy on his tongue.

The faun smiled, pointed to herself, knocked her pointer and middle fingers of each hand together, then made two one handed gestures. The first was one he didn't recognize, the hand to the side, fingers at a right angle to the palm, motioned down, but the second he did recognize. It was the hand in the shape of the moon, pushed out from the temple.

"Moon? Something 'Moon'?" He cocked his head curiously. She nodded, pleased, and flipped through the book, to point at the word he didn't recognize. "Little? Little Moon?" He tipped his head back. He recognized it as the meaning of an old name, one he'd heard a long time ago, but it evaded him.

He thought of the figures in his life he'd associated with the moon, besides, of course, old Yule and now Mune. His people revered the moon as much as any, and it was customary to give one's child a night-respective name, but it was sometimes considered an arrogance to name them after the moon itself. The exception would be to give the name a modifier, like 'little' or 'light', translated into old Moonspeak.

He remembered tales of his family passed, of his grandmother, an ancient matriarch who had passed just before his brood had hatched, named for the pearly white eclipse shaped marks on her cheeks-

"Wait, Lunisa? Is your name Lunisa?"

The faun smiled wide and nodded, her tail whipping and curling in delight. She repeated her gesture, which he took to mean, "My name is Lunisa."

"Lunisa." Leeyoon nodded. "A grand name. A very lucky name." He nodded again. Lunisa shrugged at that, humbly dismissing the idea. He still wasn't used to people not agreeing with him, so he didn't know what to say, and decided to look at his hands.

"H-how did you say 'my name is..'?" He asked shyly, and once more the faun- Lunisa- beamed. She scooted closer and laid the book before them so that he could see both her demonstrations and the book's illustrations, and there they spent the night.


	8. Chapter 8

Leeyoon didn't notice the rising of the sun, too involved in mastering Lunisa's language to care about the rising temperature or the gently changing ratio of light and shadow. He was by no means an expert, and he felt he could understand more than he could say, but this was the most challenging thing he'd done since he'd passed his educational courses, and by the end of those he was breezing through the lessons with ease. That had been before he'd come to Mune's community, and that was several years ago.

The challenge of learning and doing and mastering something new set his mind on fire like he hadn't felt in so long, and he was thriving off it.

Lunisa, however, slowed down at the showing of the sun, though it took Leeyoon a while to notice. She kept staring off, distracted by seemingly nothing, and then snapping back to attention without provocation either. He didn't notice, at first, and when he did, he thought it was just a sign of her thoughtfulness, but when she stared off for several moments, unresponsive, he became worried.

"Lunisa?" He said, leaning over to put his face in her eyes' path. She didn't respond or move or seem at all to notice the change in what was before her eyes, so he reached over to nudge her gently, but before he could, she jolted straight into a standing position and then rocketed herself into the tree above them.

"Lunisa, what's-" He started, but she started signing rapidly and he stopped to track what she was saying. He recognized less than a third of what she was saying, much to his dismay, so he stood and put out his hands, "Hold on, I can't- I don't understand."

She paused, blinked, and said, "Please —"

"Please.. what?" Leeyoon still didn't understand, and leaned down to the book, picked it up and held it up for her. She flipped through the pages, then pointed to her word. 'Go'.

"O-oh. Go. Right, yes, you- you must be tired.." He offered, suddenly and sickeningly unsure if she was just bored or tired of _him_, or if he'd done something wrong again, and stepped back. "Yes." He said, and nearly backed away with his eyes locked on the ground, but he happened to look up to see Lunisa gesturing, speaking, again.

"Come back tomorrow." She said, once, then twice, as if to reassure him, emphasizing the words 'come back'.

"You want me to come back?" Leeyoon was surprised, his heart jumping a bit erratically in his chest. "Are you sure."

"Yes." She said, "Tomorrow."

"Yes. Tomorrow." He nodded, and felt himself smiling despite himself.

"Tomorrow." She nodded, and smiled as well, and waved him goodbye. He waved back, and took his book, clutching it to his chest, and left. He heard the rustling of the tree behind him as Lunisa disappeared into its upper branches and leaves, but by the time he'd turned back to confirm it, even the leaves had settled back into stillness, the agile faun too swift for him to have caught.

Still, he smiled to himself as he walked home, reflecting on the night. He'd been nervous when it started out, but it turned out better than alright, and he couldn't help but smile at how well it felt. The ending was a bit abrupt, but he thought he didn't mind. Lunisa was obviously a bit odd, per her social exclusion, so she was bound to come with a few other tics, habits and traits that came with being alone.

He felt exhausted himself, both physically from the long hikes he'd been having in recent days, and emotionally from the exertion of bonding at speaking with someone else. He hadn't talked in such depth and vulnerability since he'd trained with Sohone, and that was as long ago as the last time he'd done educational work. Granted, he wasn't terribly good at being vulnerable, and hadn't ever been, so the extent of that vulnerability was not entirely 'vulnerable', and was simply the extent of anything he'd ever talked about mixed with learning a language.

He noted that neither had Lunisa shared anything too detailed in the sharing of language, but he was alright with that, given what he had shared, which was very little. There was a sort of tugging at his heart, thinking about that, but he chalked it up to nervousness about the next night. Would everything reset? Would he be awkward again? Would she be nervous around him?

He didn't know, and that made him nervous, he was certain. He wasn't used to not knowing things anymore, for so long being the voice of reason and wisdom to the common faun and night dweller, and being out of the know was an uncomfortable position for him. Certainly that was all this nervousness was.

Wasn't it?

He couldn't find another source for his nervousness, and in this understanding of it, it quieted. He walked home in the glowing sunrise, golden and bright and warm, entering the community in silence. The morning birds wouldn't wake yet, and all the fauns were to bed already, so he was alone in the clearing. Part of his sleepless and tired mind thought it odd the clearing be so empty, but for the most part he felt calm and at ease, as if he had earned rest.

Indeed, as he crawled into his watery bed, he felt relaxed as he hadn't in years, exhausted but able to rest. He sank to the depths, his book safely resting on a ledge far and dry above him, and his mind sank to its own depths. He slept deeply, as he hadn't truly in weeks. He didn't have answers for all the questions plaguing his mind, but he at least had something to focus on:

Lunisa.

She was a mystery, and she was one he looked forward to unraveling. She presented new challenges, a distraction, and new goals he could put his focus towards, instead of towards those inward, burning questions that made him hurt just so. Their conversations were light, educational, and otherwise meaningless, but he had loved the interaction, and he hoped for much more. He was, of course, nervous to have to reveal more of himself and his past, but she seemed just as reluctant, and that made things interesting. He wasn't sure if he was willing to barter his past for hers, but, well, he wasn't sure he wasn't.

In the heavy depths of his den, Leeyoon truly rested, wondering about all the things he would get to learn when he awoke the next night. His mind ran through all the handsigns he had already learned, and felt just the tiniest bit proud for having learned them, ready to use them again to show his companion that he learned well and fast and was conscious of his partner. He wanted to impress her, wanted to make a mark, like he hadn't since he'd come to this place in, well, the first place.

He didn't dream. He never had, but his mind fluttered with thoughts like he hadn't before, and they were almost like dreams. His hopes played out in his head like visions, almost dreams, but too much like conscious wants to be dreams. They were enough, though, to distract him from his physical awareness, the flow of the water and the air that flowed over it, his breathing within it and his own heartbeat.

Those things fell to the side of his awareness. He felt hopeful, he felt invigorated, inspired, ready to do his best. Only these thoughts played in his mind as he rested, and when, in the evening when the sun was setting and the moon was rising, he felt only these things. The world was golden and blue, and he was ready to see and learn and do.


	9. Chapter 9

Leeyoon woke early, before the sunrise, and headed out to Lunisa's tree. He brought the book, still needing it, but it was with a smile and a confidence he hadn't felt in months. It was humbly that he brought it, but happily that he went. He also brought more of the fruit he'd grabbed the other day

By the time he arrived, the sun had just set, his excitement too great to wait. He didn't even notice his eagerness except by his early arrival, marked by the moon just rising over the horizon. He felt a bit embarrassed to be so excited, but he saw Lunisa sitting in the lower bough of the tree and thought she must be eager too.

Except that her eyes were wide and distant, focused on a sightless faraway. She was shivering, too, arms wrapped around her knees and her tail wrapped around the bough. Her body screamed a tense mind and anxious attitude, but her eyes.. her eyes were thoughtless and far.

"Lunisa?" Leeyoon approached carefully, but she didn't respond. "Lunisa?" He called again, reaching a hand out. Again, just before he'd made contact she seemed to come awake and realize he was there, her fur bristling as her eyes snapped to him. With a jolt she jumped to a higher branch, eyes and ears flicking about with fear.

She looked exhausted behind the terror.

"Did you sleep at all?" He asked, and her attention returned to him. She stared blankly at him for a long moment and it made his blood feel like ice, but eventually she nodded. He didn't believe her, but he didn't know how to say so without falling into his age old habit of being incredibly rude.

"Well, I brought breakfast. I take it you haven't had any yet..?" He held up the purple fruit for her, and she smiled tiredly and came down from the higher branch. She sat in the lower one, which she seemed to favor for their interactions, and he leaned against the tree as they ate in silence.

It was always quiet around the faun, he noticed. Most fauns brought out the creatures of the night, the songbirds, the glow bugs, the lesser amphibians, but it was always quiet around Lunisa. And dark, though that made sense. If a faun couldn't sing to the flora, they couldn't draw out the light within. Plants lit up to his presence, and he could make them glow brighter with his touch, but he was different.

When he was satisfied with his meal, there was still quite a bit of the fruit left around the pit, so he walked a short distance away from Lunisa's tree to an empty patch of dirt, and buried it, humming to it for good luck as he went. He couldn't feel the life inside it like fauns often claimed to be able to, but he hoped it would grow wild and free and happy all the same. There was a soft rustling of the tree as Lunisa jumped from it and came to sit by him, staring at what he'd done with a perplexed look, ears askew.

"Why?" She asked.

"Why did I.. plant it?" He asked, perplexed himself. She nodded quite seriously. "For one, it's tradition, and for another it's just.. a decent thing to do? I could recite all the studies about maintaining balance and equilibrium or the moral tales of giving back to the planet what we can, but it's just a sensible thing to do. One day that pit will, with any luck and care, grow into an entirely new plant that could feed someone or some creature else, and if not, it will reproduce and continue to spread its children.. this place could one day be a grove." He shrugged.

Lunisa looked between him and the fist-sized mound of dirt with heavy thought on her face, as if she'd never considered. Leeyoon couldn't help but wonder what kind of life she'd been living if she didn't know or understand even her own kind's culture. It was the fauns who were dedicated to the preservation of nature, while other nightkind and the people of the day were more concerned with maintaining themselves and progressing society. That she didn't have even the basic knowledge or understanding of this, well, it must mean something.

She held out her own pit, a little more cleaned than his own had been, and offered it to him.

"You'd like to plant it?" She nodded as he took the pit from her.

"How?" She asked.

"Well, you want to plant these ones a bit deep, and because of the nature of their roots, you want to give them a good bit of space from others of their kind.." He said, motioning for her to move over about a foot. "About here. About a hand's length down, or as big as the fruit was." He instructed. She nodded and plunged her hands in the dirt, scooping and scraping the soft soil out of the way until, indeed, she could fit her hand in the depths. Leeyoon handed the pit back to her, which she far too gently placed in the hole, and covered over.

"Now?" She asked, and clapped the dirt from her hands.

"Now, you wait. In time the pit will break open and roots will grow out. Those roots will pull energy from the fruit and the dirt and keep growing, and then it will try to sprout a stem, and leaves, so that it can take energy from the sun and the moon. The roots will take a couple weeks, and the stem a couple more."

"Weeks? So long?"

"Well, if it's to do a good job, yes." He shrugged. She seemed disappointed, and then fascinated again.

"Will it — anything?" She asked.

"Oh, I don't know that one." Leeyoon repeated the gesture, pointer finger out and pointing down in short motions. He took the book from its leafy bag and Lunisa quickly found the word, 'need'.

"Will it need anything? Well, it will need water, but it can pull that from the ground, so long as we don't have a heatwave. If the dirt dries out, you could water it, but not too much, or it will drown and rot."

"How much?" She asked.

"For these you want the soil to remain damp, not muddy." She nodded cheerfully, focusing hard on the small mounds. Leeyoon gave her a once over, noting her thinness and paleness as he had the first time he'd seen her. "How are your hands?"

She seemed surprised, and didn't say anything, just showed him her scraped palms. They were healing nicely, but he still felt guilty about it. With her hands outstretched like this, he could see the soft shaking captured there, a small trembling that seemed to haunt her frame. It wasn't as bad as he thought he'd seen it before, but it certainly didn't seem completely normal.

Lunisa suddenly stood up and walked about the tree, saying nothing and apparently lost in thoughts of her own. Leeyoon watched her for a while, curious, but he couldn't make any sense of what she was doing besides walking in random directions and lashing her tail as she went. He noted that she did not step around him or their planted remains of breakfast, but it did nothing to solve the mystery of what she was up to.

"Lunisa, what are you doing out here?" The question popped into his head and out of his mouth within a second and without a second thought. She halted, surprised, and shrugged.

She was still for just a moment, and then threw herself into a twirl and kept going, moving oddly and without purpose around Leeyoon and the tree.

"Wh- What are you doing?" He asked and stood to track her. "Are you- are you dancing?" She didn't answer but to keep going. Leeyoon thought he spied a chuckle, too, but he didn't join in.

"That's not what I meant.." He said, but she still didn't stop. "Is that what you do, all the time, by yourself.. out here?"

That stopped her. She turned around halfway, and her ears fell low. She shrugged again but didn't do anything more.

"Why?" Leeyoon asked, and tried not to seem overly eager or curious. Lunisa shrugged again and turned away.

"I just do." She signed, but he barely caught it as she refused to turn more than half way back to him. He came around to her side, but he didn't know what to do when he got there. She stared down at the dirt, too still, and he stood beside her, and the world was quiet around them.

"Why did you come — here?" She asked, and he didn't know how to tell her he didn't know one of the words she used.

"I was looking for you."

"Why — for me?" She asked. He took the wide 'c' hand motion to mean 'look'.

"I heard about a faun in the forest, all alone. It.. it didn't seem right." He shrugged, but he felt like this was a lie, and he could see that she felt it too.

"Why are you here?" She asked. Leeyoon looked down at his feet and then met her eyes, afraid. Lunisa stared at him without judgement and with only mild and sad curiosity. He could see the tired on her face, and it felt old and familiar and dangerously so.

He chuckled and shrugged again, but it was dry and miserable, "I don't know. I keep asking myself why, too. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know why. Just that.. I am. Here I am."

Lunisa nodded and looked down, as if to say, 'so you are'. They stood quietly again, and the air grew heavy with an unnameable feeling that had haunted them both for far longer than the past several days. Leeyoon couldn't admit it, couldn't put it to words or even thought, but this feeling had ridden his shoulders his whole life, a feeling of incompletion, of wanting and not knowing what it was that he wanted.

It was a moment of teetering, of open ended possibility, the purest form of potential energy, but sick and stuck and sad without even the hint of a direction to aim it in.


	10. Chapter 10

"Why did you run?" He eventually asked. Lunisa looked up at him curiously, not quite understanding him, and shook her head.

"You won't tell me?" He asked, a bit hurt and for reasons he didn't understand. She shook her head again and looked frustrated herself.

"I don't know." She signed, and began to walk away.

"You don't know why you ran? Or you don't know why you won't tell me?" He badgered her, taking off behind her. He was nearly two heads taller than her and kept pace with her easily. She grew agitated at this, lashing her tail angrily.

"I don't know." She signed again, and took a sharp left, away from Leeyoon.

"What does that _mean_?" He insisted, stepping around her and blocking her way. She chittered her teeth at him, almost growling and definitely upset, but he didn't back down. "No one can help you if you won't talk about it!"

"Don't need help." She signed angrily and shoved past him. "Please go." She signed, turning back to speak clearly without stopping.

Leeyoon halted his chasing of her then. He felt his fins droop and knew he'd overstepped his bounds and felt sick for it. He opened and closed his hands, hoping for a sign of what to do, what to say, to fix what he'd inevitably broken. Nothing came to him, and he felt even worse.

"Sorry." He said, calling enough to hope that she heard. She didn't react, and he didn't stick around.

Leeyoon walked back to the tree, quiet and angry and languishing, where his book was waiting on the ground, still open to the page with the word 'need' on it. He shook his head and felt silly, foolish for the whole endeavor again, for entertaining the idea of friendship with Lunisa, for whatever he thought he might get out of their interactions. He shut the book and wrapped it up in the leaf bag he'd crafted, and wondered if he could return it early, and if Kindle would judge him poorly for doing so.

The moon passed slowly overhead as he contemplated the book. He wanted to cry, but he couldn't completely explain why, only that this moment was a painful one and he didn't want to be in it. But, in it and living it he was, and he couldn't deny the truth. This was his fault.

He let out an aggravated and sorrowful sigh. _He'd_ messed this up. Whatever he could claim about Mune stealing the moon, he'd done this all on his own, and it felt worse to know that it was his own choices, truly, that were damning him. He could pretend that the whole guardians_ thing_ was a cosmic mix up and that it wasn't fair the hand he'd been dealt, but this? Oh, he'd ruined this all by himself.

It started to rain, then, and though the water was on one hand comforting, he knew he had to get the book to safety. Besides which, Lunisa had asked him to leave, and he felt certain she meant for good. But, standing to leave, he saw Lunisa standing at the top of the small hill that lead to her tree. She seemed frail, pale and lean and wavering though she was standing still.

"I'm being an ass again." He said, but he meant to say 'I'm sorry'. Half consciously, he signed, "I'm sorry.", his voice failing him.

"Me too." Lunisa signed. "I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted." Leeyoon signed back, which earned a small smile from Lunisa. "I'll still go," He said aloud, "if you'd like."

She thought for a moment, and shook her head. Leeyoon was surprised, but didn't say anything as she came down the hill- the same one she'd originally tripped down- to stand beside him.

"Why are you out here?" She asked him again, then shook her head and asked, "Why were you — — me?"

"I, I don't know those ones."

"Why are you here for me?" She said before he could retrieve the book.

"I don't know.."

"Why.. come back?" She asked slowly, taking care to use words she knew he knew.

"Why did I come back? Well.." Leeyoon put a hand to his shallow cheek and thought. This didn't feel as un-answerable as why he came out in the first place, though it was a decision that still confused him. "I think that, after I realized that I startled you, a-and was at least partially responsible for your hand injuries, I wanted to try to make it up to you.

I- I'm not good at this." He laughed, his face screwing into a twisted and miserable smile. "My whole life I've been told what I would be, and now- now I'm not that, and I have no plan, and I don't know what I'm doing! There's no one to teach me or tell me what to do, and I've never wanted to be anything but what I was told I should be, so.. I- I was supposed to be a leader and care about people and I- I thought- I don't know, some part of me thought I should still do that? But I'm not cut out for this. I'm a sham, coasting on knowing things and being 'important', and that's all run out, so.. who am I? What am I doing?" He sighed.

"And why am I making it your problem?" Leeyoon laughed a little more earnestly, Lunisa's shoulder's shaking in what he was pretty sure was a chuckle. She elbowed him gently but didn't say anything. Leeyoon had a feeling she was in a similar situation, that she had words to say, but unfortunately he didn't know all of hers yet.

"I have.. intruded on your life, Lunisa. I have been rude and callous and.. and difficult, to say the least. I'm sorry for, for that, and for asking all these questions and being insistent and consistently rude. I.. may I ask one more question?"

Lunisa looked up at him curiously and thought for a moment before nodding.

"Why did you come down? Either times I showed up after being so rude.. You didn't- you could have left or ignored me and I'd be out of your hair.. I'm sure I seemed like more trouble than I was worth, so.." Lunisa seemed surprised at the question, and put a hand to her mouth to think, equally surprised by her own behavior. Lost in thought for a moment, they stood in the light rain. It made them both seem to sparkle, Lunisa more than Leeyoon for all her fur.

She looked back to Leeyoon, contemplated how to tell her all her thoughts in only the few words he reliably knew, and then gave up by grabbing him by the wrist and walking him to a nearby plant. It was about as high as his hip, bulbous and heavy with water, and it lit up as he approached. She placed his hand on the top and it glowed a little more brightly, filling the air with a soft candy apple pink.

Lunisa smiled at the light and let go of his hand.

"I.. I don't think I understand.. I'm sorry." He admitted, but as she just looked between him and the plant, he left his hand there, and hummed to ask the plant to glow brighter. The sound was low, almost too low for him to even hear despite being the one producing it, but the plant heard, and responded by casting out all its light from the day in a strong glow that filled the small clearing. By proxy, several other plants heard the response and answered the call, adding their blues and greens and purples to the strong pink.

Leeyoon's companion smiled at the sight, pleased. She made a sign he didn't recognize, and then it struck him. She couldn't sing to the plants, couldn't make them glow. Her world, he realized, must be incredibly dark during the night. Though fauns were predisposed to get by with minimal light, they still needed _something_, and their ability to nurture plants and coax their stored light out of them was absolutely necessary.

It was a necessity she did not possess.

He watched her as she stepped away and took in the scene around them. It was much brighter now, and the effect was that the whole environment seemed to glow with something much less tangible that light: life. The color of the lights brought out a vibrancy, an energy that was infectious. Lunisa seemed more alive, too, stepping around the clearing delicately, as if she might scare away the light.

Leeyoon's heart ached with a feeling he couldn't name but had always known.


	11. Chapter 11

Lunisa went around the clearing slowly, and Leeyoon could only watch and try to process what he was feeling. He did not do a very good job of it, as lost as ever with what he was feeling, though somehow this stung more. He felt, suddenly, he could deal with the mess of his existential confusion much easier than he could this realization. How do you even begin to work on a problem that doesn't have a name?

It was much worse because he knew that Lunisa would not want to share this problem with him.

He shouldn't have hurt so much. He barely knew her, after all. So what that he'd enjoyed her company so much; he'd ruined it, she'd asked him to go, and so go he would. Another problem he couldn't fix. He should be used to it, shouldn't he?

Lunisa stood still in the light rain and the glow of the flora around them as their light began to dim. They were unused to letting all their light out like that, unstoked, untempered, untamed by anyone, and so their gift was a short one. Lunisa, even with her back turned to him, seemed disappointed, but Leeyoon could tell she was unsurprised.

"I should go." He said plainly. Better to get it over with. Lunisa turned back to him, ears flipping halfway up, still unsurprised. "If that's still what you'd like," he offered.

She looked down and thought, and then nodded. "Right." He nodded back. "Well, have a good rest of your night, and.. sorry again." Lunisa only nodded again and turned away.

And so, heart aching immeasurably, Leeyoon turned and walked away.

He didn't head home, though. He was sore and tired and hurting, but he thought that, if his dealings with Lunisa were over, he ought to return the book. He hadn't been at Lunisa's tree long, so he ought to make it to the wax village by sunrise.

He trudged solemnly. For once, his thoughts were quiet, almost nonexistent. What was there to think, after all? He'd messed up, he'd apologized, but he'd messed up. It was over.

In a blur, he was at Kindle's library. It'd only been a few days since he'd been here last, though it felt like weeks. The sun was rising, the air heating around him, and Kindle themself was surely waking up inside, but he didn't dare go inside. It would be the final blow in his latest failure to go in and admit that he'd ruined everything.

He considered, very briefly, leaving the book outside and running away, but he supposed that would be rude to Kindle, and they didn't deserve that. So, with a deep sigh he pushed himself past the fabric curtain that kept him outside.

As he'd guessed, Kindle was awakening, stirring to life as the heat of the world allows them to move. Leeyoon had never paid much attention to the denizens of dusk and dawn, having only lukewarm opinions of them, preferring the people of the night, the people he had to impress, and he was fascinated. He watched as Kindle's wax went from dead and inert matter to _them_, living and moving and alive.

The heavyset wax person blinked once, and their eyes were on him. A shiver went up his spine, his dorsal fins flaring reflexively.

"I didn't expect you so soon, Leeyoon." Kindle smiled, but Leeyoon only hung his head and thumbed the book, still wrapped in its leaf. It hadn't stopped raining until recently, and he didn't want to drop it in a persisting puddle. He hung in the doorway, curtain closed behind him, suddenly no longer brave enough to follow through with returning the book.

It wasn't until Kindle put a hand on the book, clutched desperately in his shaking hands, that he even realized he had been stuck or had started crying. A tear had rolled off his shallow cheek onto their hand, the wax cooling stiffly beneath it.

"Leeyoon, why don't you sit down and tell me what's wrong?" The librarian said, their other hand placed warmly on his shoulder. He wanted to resist, but it was far too late for that, Kindle already leading him to one of the many tables. They took the book and sat him down and settled in beside him.

He just sobbed for a long while. He didn't have words for all that he was feeling, just all that feeling running it's way through him. All the misery of the past few months and the drama of the past few days finally leaving him in an emotional heave. If he weren't so overwhelmed, he might have felt embarrassed for the display, but Kindle was little more than a stranger, and he hurt too much to care what they thought. Besides which, they only seemed concerned.

When he was done, Kindle pat his back and asked him, "Better?"

"A bit." He mumbled.

Kindle nodded, "Good, good. I suspect that didn't solve all your problems, but it seemed much needed. What's been burning you, Leeyoon?"

Leeyoon wanted very badly to lie, to say it was nothing, to get up and walk away, appearances be damned, to walk into the woods and get so lost.. but he didn't. He looked up at them with puffy eyes, took a hard swallow, and told them everything.

When all was said, Kindle only nodded for a good while.

"It seems like it's been overwhelming you for a long time, little one." They said at last. Leeyoon couldn't argue. "Why keep it in for so long?"

"Who would I talk to? I didn't exactly cultivate friendships before.." He waved a hand, vaguely referring to the past and the even that defined his life.

"No, that's true. But you could have talked to anyone. You know _everyone_ in the faun community; would any of them have turned you away if you asked for help, or even just a conversation?"

Leeyoon blinked. "N- no, I.. I suppose they wouldn't.. but it didn't feel right. I'd- I'd been taking advantage of who I was- who they.. they thought I was. It didn't seem right."

"I can understand that." They nodded, eyes closed. "Are you so sure this faun doesn't want you around, this little moon of yours?"

"She asked me to go, and she did not ask me to come back. It seems pretty cut and dry to me.."

"But she didn't ask you _not_ to come back." Kindle pointed out. Leeyoon looked up and across at the book just out of reach. Kindle did have a point, but he felt sure that Lunisa would have explicitly asked for him to come back if he wanted to.

"I think it's over, Kindle. I'm not meant for this, I never was. It seems obvious now that the moon would reject me; I'm not fit for this part of the job, and if it wasn't clear before, I think it's clearer than crystal now." He sighed and laid his head on the table.

The library grew quiet, and at first it was fine that way, but Leeyoon soon realized he had not known Kindle to not speak like this. They were thoughtful with their words, but they were not the sort to hold back what they thought either. He looked up to see them staring hard at him.

For once, their soft face seemed hard with thought and even judgment, and it honestly terrified Leeyoon. They did not seem welcoming or kind or thoughtful in a helpful way; they seemed to be picking him apart piece by piece so thoroughly that he felt as if he might turn to dust. He did not, though, and what felt like forever but was really just a moment ended as Kindle slowly smiled.

"Leeyoon. I have been alive a very long time. Many of the books here in my library were written by my own hand, both copies and originals. I have seen many things and known many people, so I can say with certainty that you are not what you think of yourself. Inside you, there is a real you. You may think you know this real you, but- and please do not think me presumptuous to say this- but you don't know him yet. You've hidden him away, and it will take much work to find him again.

But, let me say this: when you find him, you will find that he has not been far away, never been out of reach, you have always had the power to be him, and he is good. You are good. And you can be better than what you think you are."

Overwhelmed, Leeyoon flusters, "Why- why are you- why tell me this? What am I supposed to do?"

"I can't tell you what to do. I can't tell you who to be. I just know that you'll do well, when the time comes."

"The time comes for _what_?"

"Oh, this and that. Why don't you take your book, dear, you've got more time on it." Kindle grabbed the book and pushed it gently toward him.

"But I don't need.. I'm not.. She isn't…"

"She isn't the only one who speaks this way, dear. And besides, it is useful. Take it, and if you don't want it when the date is due, then you may return it and I will not push the issue." Kindle suggested in a way that was a command. "And, since the day is young, why don't you show me what you've learned?"


	12. Chapter 12

Kindle tested him thoroughly and far more harshly than Leeyoon would have suspected. Lunisa had been gentle in her lessons, always smiling and gently correcting him, but Kindle was strict, judging the looseness of his gestures and his lack of structure. They called him out for his limited knowledge of words, his 'learn as needed' attitude, and demanded that he practice each of the words in the field guide at least ten times before he even attempt a proper sentence again.

He ended up spending the day practicing his signs until Kindle was satisfied with his abilities, and though it was at times greatly frustrating, he did not think about what had made him so miserable when he'd arrived. He did, though, think about Lunisa the entire time. It was hard not to.

"Well, it's ten to close, deary. I'm afraid you'll have to go, unless you intend to stay all night, but I take it you want to go home..?" Kindle said.

"No, I- yes, home." Leeyoon shook his head, having to remember how to put thoughts to audible words. He'd just past the 'h' words- 'home' was signed by putting the finger tips at ones lower cheek and moving them up near the ear, or ear fins in Leeyoon's case- and the movement came to mind before the sound.

"Will you take the book?" They asked, suddenly somber.

"I suppose so. I've nothing else to do, and you're right that it's a useful thing to know." He said as he stood, collecting the book. "I'll.. see you in a couple weeks."

"I look forward to it. I'll be testing you even harder then, so you best put it to work, Leeyoon." Kindle teased him as they walked for the door.

"Oh, I believe it." Leeyoon chuckled, but the sound turned sad. Outside, he would have to deal with his thoughts again, and he wasn't sure he was ready.

"May I give you some more advice, Leeyoon?"

"I don't see why not."

"Next time you get stuck in your head, take a walk, and don't stop until you feel better. You'll be surprised where you end up." Kindle said, poking him in the chest. It felt odd, as if their hand was softer than usual.

"Wh- why? Where would I go?"

"Doesn't matter. Just walk. You'll find that your thoughts take you where you need to go." They patted his shoulder and shooed him away. "Now you best hurry home and get some rest. You've been out for quite a while and done quite a lot today!"

"Alright, alright.." Leeyoon let them push him out the fabric door, into the fading sunlight. "Ah, Kindle?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you." He said. "I- I don't know that I deserved the kindness, but it is much appreciated. Even the bullying me into practicing.. I feel better for it all."

"Of course, young one. Come back sooner if you need someone to bully you kindly again." Kindle smirked.

"Good night, Kindle."

"Good night, Leeyoon."

His thoughts were a lot louder than on the way there, but he felt that they were manageable at least, and truthfully they were still quiet for all the exhaustion of the past day and night. So, though his feet were sore and his legs ached and his heart still panged, he slept easily when he did finally crawl into his cave. He didn't even care about the peculiar looks he noticed a few of the fauns gave him for his strange arrival- who came _home_ in the middle of the _night_?- or how they eyed the book in his hands and knew he had to have been to either a day village or a mixed one.

Once upon a time, those looks would have been the death of him, the way they whispered anything but adulation would have torn his mind asunder, but now? Now he was tired.

He woke the next night to the sound of someone inside his cave, which happened very rarely before the guardians incident, and hadn't happened all since. He stirred awake as a small pebble _splooped_ into the water just over his head, and swam toward the surface. Before he even broke the otherwise still water's edge, he could see the face of a young faun peering down at him, just dawning into panic as they saw him.

They tried to run, but tripped and landed on their rear. His cave was a sharp and uneven incline down to where the water had been collected for him, not dry and warm and gentle like the faun's own cave systems, so it didn't surprise him that the child- for it was a child- had tripped. As he floated at the top of the water, he decided he wouldn't yell, but only because they were just a child.

That is, until he saw the book.

"What are you doing with that?" He snarled and snatched the book away, holding it above water carefully. It was mostly still in its leaf, which he'd replaced that morning, and it hadn't gotten wet yet, but the child had been holding it precariously close to the edge. He was sure Kindle wasn't the murderous type, but he didn't want to know what they'd make him do to replace or otherwise make up for any damage to their property.

"I- I- I-" They stuttered, "I'm sorry! Everyone was- I heard everyone talking yesterday- I wanted to know what the book was before everyone else did-"

"So you snuck in to steal it? What if it had gotten damaged?! It isn't_ mine_ you know!"

"It's not?" The child sniffled, voice squeaking. Leeyoon cringed at his harsh tone, and took a moment to answer.

"No. I borrowed it from the library. That's where they keep books- and can you even read? You wouldn't have gotten very far in discovering what it was about if you can't read it." Leeyoon pointed out.

"I-" The faun blinked. "I didn't think that far ahead." Leeyoon sighed and swam towards the edge. He gently placed the book back on its perch and climbed out of the water.

"Well, let's get you out of here." He said and offered his hand. The faun looked up at him curiously. "Come on, then. I don't suppose you want to spend your night down here, do you?"

"No, no, I just- you aren't mad?"

"No. I mean, yes, I feel a bit put out that you couldn't wait or didn't think to ask first, but no harm came to the book and I am _assuming_ you won't do something like this again, will you?" The faun shook their head. "Then, come on." He offered his hand again, and the faun reluctantly took it.

They were small enough that he could lift them to their hooves with just one arm and a swift motion, and it was just as easy a feat to swing them up to the next ledge in the cave. In a few short moments they were both out of the cold, dark and into the open, light of the community. The fauns were closer to his cave than they might normally be, meaning they were all as curious as the child was, but they seemed genuinely surprised that the child emerged first.

Leeyoon handed them off to their scolding parents who seemed too embarrassed to directly address him, and he was about to go on his way when the small crowd of fauns approached him. They barraged him with questions before he could even let out a 'hello'.

"One at a time!" He barked. "What's all this about?"

"What have you been up to, Leeyoon? You keep coming and going at odd hours!" An older faun asked.

"Not much, and it's my business." He tried to wave them away, but another stepped in front of him,

"But you haven't done anything in a long while, so what's got your attention now? Are you looking for a new home? Are you tired of us?"

"What? Stars, no! I just- I got sick of doing nothing, that's all. Besides, what does it matter?" Again he tried to leave, to sidestep around and away from this noise so he could go read, but once again another two fauns blocked his path,

"But we'd miss you if you went!" Said one.

"Don't you like us anymore?" Said the other.

"Wh- what?"

"Well, you haven't been as active, Leeyoon." A new voice said, approaching. It was actually Mune's father, Cress. "They've been worried about you."

"What?" Leeyoon said again.


	13. Chapter 13

The gaggle of fauns chirped inquisitively between themselves, and Leeyoon felt himself turn warm all over from embarrassment. Cress sighed and shooed them away,

"Go. The man's clearly busy, so let's give him some space, will you?" Cress had never been so respectfully regarded before, but the fauns all listened to him, even the one who out-yeared him. They shuffled away, grumbling or murmuring with more conspiracies. There must be something gained when one was father to a guardian, Leeyoon supposed.

"Sorry about them. I've been trying to keep them out of your hair, eh, so to speak." Cress said apologetically.

"Not to worry. I'm not actually up to anything, I just thought.. I thought no one wanted anything to do with me. I've been keeping my distance from all of_ you_." Leeyoon laughed, letting out the last of his embarrassment.

Cress seemed surprised. "I thought you would want some time to adjust, so I- Oh, oh dear." He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, "I didn't mean to make it seem like we were ignoring you, I just thought you'd want space."

"No, it's all fine. I did need some time.." He trailed, and looked down at the book. And what had he done with that time? Mostly wasted it, it would seem.

"How are you feeling, then?"

"Feeling?"

"About everything. I mean, my son.. Mune did steal your career, essentially. I can't imagine that's an easy thing to deal with."

"Oh. No, I'm-" He waved his hand, searching for a reasonable answer that didn't come, "-I'm mostly lost, if I'm being honest. I don't know what to do with myself."

"So you've been visiting the library?" Cress pointed at the book.

"It wasn't exactly- there's a little more to it than that, but yes." Leeyoon felt warm again. How long had he felt so powerful talking down to the fauns, and now he couldn't speak evenly with even one? He felt like a child- and maybe he still was. Cress was a full fledged adult, and though Leeyoon was mature enough to walk on land, a gift that came at the age of twelve in his kind, he wasn't _much_ older than that. He'd spent, he counted quickly, only about seven or eight years above land. The fauns would still consider him a _young_ adult, if that.

Cress looked at him softly. "Well, if you need anything, we're all still here for you." What Kindle said ran through his mind, '_would any of them have turned you away if you asked for help..?_'

"Thank you. I- I think I'm well enough for right now, though, so.."

"I'll let you be on your way." Cress nodded and smiled at him. Leeyoon, for the first time, smiled back easily. The older faun patted him friendily on the arm and went on his way. Leeyoon half-turned to watch him go, and felt warm in a different way.

The past couple nights and days had been surprisingly welcoming. He hadn't expected such support or kindness from either Kindle or Cress, nor had he suspected that the community itself would _miss_ him as that one faun had said. So, it seemed that despite having lost his status, he wasn't quite as unimportant as he'd thought.

He didn't wander as far as he might normally have to read and practice, and when the fauns called out 'hello' he responded happily. It was nice, he had to admit. It was simple, but it was nice.

Midway through the night, a faun came close, standing between the bright green of a plant he was reading by and the book. He looked up to ask them to move, but he recognized the faun that Glim had been speaking with, the other mute one. They were looking quizzically down at the book. They obviously recognized the handsigns, but it seemed they were focusing on the words beside them.

"Hello." He signed.

"Hello!" They signed cheerfully back. "Are you learning to speak?"

"Yes." He smiled enthusiastically.

"Why?" They asked.

"Because I met someone like you." He said, and though it took him a moment to remember 'met', fists with extended pointer fingers colliding together at the palms, he realized that he was actually communicating with ease.

"Like me?" They signed back, head tipping sideways.

"About a week ago, two fauns were talking about someone strange in the woods. I met them, and they talk like you. I decided to learn." Leeyoon explained.

"Wonderful!" The faun clapped their hands in extra delight. "When are you going to see them again?"

Leeyoon's smile faded, and he opened his mouth to say, "I don't think I will."

"Why?" The faun asked, equally saddened.

"I think I made her very upset. She asked me to leave, so I did." He shrugged and sat back against the base of his tree.

"Oh." The faun signed simply, and sat down next to Leeyoon. "You should go say hello."

"But-"

"She might not be mad anymore." The faun interrupted him, signing faster than he could speak.

"I- I don't know if that's a good idea." He shrugged.

"Then why are you still learning?" They elbowed him and gestured to the book with a nod. "Seems silly to learn something for a new friend if you aren't going to use it."

"I don't even know if we're friends, though! I- I wasn't exactly nice the first time we met, and I- I was wrong, when I made her upset.. You don't do that to your friends, or so I've been lead to believe."

"Oh no, friends are mean to each other all the time. It's apologizing and making sure you don't do it again that makes you friends. If you kept doing it and kept meaning it too, that would make you enemies."

"Really?" The faun nodded simply. "Oh. Well. That's good to know. I.. I don't know if I'm brave enough to go try, though."

The faun just shrugged and gave him a pat on the shoulder. "By the way, call me Aster." They signed. It was the sign for 'star', and it was a fitting name. Aster, as they said, was small but exceptionally fluffy, the hair on their head almost star-shaped. "That's what I like to be called."

"Very well, Aster. It's good to meet you." Leeyoon chuckled.

Aster stayed for a while longer, chatting about signs and their friends, until said friends called for them for some previous plan. Leeyoon waved them goodbye and went back to his solo practice. It had been nice to talk so amicably, especially now that he was more fluent in their native language, but it left him feeling sore.

He was torn between seeking Lunisa out as Aster and Kindle had both now advised and leaving her be as he'd _thought_ she'd wanted. On one hand, she was responsible for all the things and nice encounters he'd had the past week or so, for if he hadn't gone to seek her out, he wouldn't have run into Glim when he had, and she would not have advised him to go see Kindle, who helped him with the books, which lead to his interacting with all the fauns that day. On the other hand, she seemed very certain that she didn't want him around, and he wanted to respect her wishes. That was also what friends were supposed to do, wasn't it?

The night was nearly over and he still didn't have an answer, so he decided to sleep on it. He wrapped his book up safely again and headed to his cave. He felt his sadness sneaking up on him, but every so often a faun would call out a final 'good night' or 'sleep well', and he had not time to let it sink in until he was in his bed of water. As he sank to the bottom, he wondered if this is the life he could have been living the past few months instead of wallowing, but he slipped into his dreamless sleep before he could figure out a real answer to that either.


	14. Chapter 14

Despite his determination to make a decision when he woke up the next night, Leeyoon still didn't have any idea what to do about Lunisa. And, despite the cheery mood he'd gone to sleep in, he woke feeling miserable about it all again. There was a tightness in his chest he couldn't quite fight off, and he knew it would make him horrible to be around. It reminded him of what Kindle had said, poking him just so on the chest before he left.

"Take a walk, huh?" He mused out loud, and mirrored it in sign just for good measure. Sure, he decided. He'd go for a walk.

He'd always been an early riser and it seemed that his unusual past week or months of loafing around hadn't been enough to undo that habit, so he snuck away before the fauns were awake, taking his book with him. He tried to read as he walked, but it couldn't hold his attention. He tried to practice saying unusual sentences, practical things, and all the words he had difficulty remembering or mixed up, but that didn't hold his mind for long either.

Truthfully, nothing held his mind for long. Even thinking of Lunisa just led to other thoughts, and those thoughts back to her in a loop of self-derision and self-doubt. He tried thinking of the future, and only felt cold and small and scared, so he just let his feet carry him wherever they wanted, and let his mind do the same.

Leeyoon's kind did not have sensitive ears above water, but he stopped when he thought he heard something that wasn't bird or beast or wind. It was low, but given that he could hear it, it couldn't be terribly far away. Focusing, it sounded like crying, the kind of crying that comes from trying to hide it, or when the crier is breathless. Leeyoon grit his teeth at the sad sound. More than that, though, it sounded somehow.. familiar.

It took a short while to find the source. His ears were not meant for hunting, not like this, and so narrowing down the location of the source was a challenge for him, but find her he did.

He didn't even realize how close he'd come to her tree on his own without even thinking about it. Perhaps it was muscle memory, or his subconscious desire to make amends, but he was at Lunisa's tree, and there was Lunisa, tucked between two of its roots, knees to her chest, shaking with sobs.

If Leeyoon had felt cold thinking on his own just moments ago, he was _frozen_ when he saw Lunisa like that.

And, just like when he'd moved when he saw her collapsed at the tree the night he chased her, he felt himself move without his own permission now. He put his hands on her shoulders, somehow kneeling in front of her. She looked up at him slowly, almost dreamily- if the dream were absolutely tear-soaked- and stared.

"Lunisa, what's wrong? Are you alright? Did- did something- Are you _hurt_?" He couldn't help but squeak as he looked her over for any sign of physical injury, worried. He shouldn't have stayed away! He shouldn't have left her out here! What did he think would happen, leaving a faun out in the wild by themself, especially one who couldn't sing to light her way in any capacity?!

As Leeyoon mentally kicked himself for abandoning her, even if it had been at her own request, Lunisa slowly blinked, and then suddenly threw her hands up to hold his face. He froze stiffly, surprised, as she just held the concave shape of his cheeks and ran her fingertips over his frills. He should have been embarrassed to let someone touch his face and his fins like that, but somehow he felt that this was important. Lunisa blinked again, and her eyes flooded and spilled over, and she threw her arms around his neck and cried.

"Lunisa!" He yelped as she nearly knocked him over, but he didn't move to make her stop or remove her from him. In fact, he was so overwhelmed with emotions of his own that he very nearly joined her, but as it was, he just held her tightly and let her do her thing. He wondered if this was how Kindle felt just a day and a night ago, or if his reciprocation of Lunisa's feelings was all his own experience.

Finally she slumped against him, her feelings spent, and he nestled her back against the tree, though she refused to let go of his arm.

"Lunisa, what's this about? What's wrong?" He asked quietly, as gently as he could. His voice felt strained, not meant for such hushed tones. He didn't care though, because quiet was what she seemed to need. Lunisa sniffled and wiped her nose on her free knuckle, but refused to say anything. She looked tired, more tired than he'd seen her before, and he was starting to suspect she didn't sleep at all.

"Please, please tell me what's wrong. If.. if not now, then later?" He tried to ask again, just as gently, tried not to whine even though he felt desperate to know. She gripped his arm tightly, and looked at him with hard and focused eyes, and only let go to sign a response with a deep grimace and trembling, hesitant hands.

"I was scared."

"Scared? Of what?" Leeyoon looked over his shoulder, but there was no sign of any threatening animal. "If something's coming after you, I'll make sure-"

She shook her head wildly and grabbed onto his arm again, holding him there. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but only gasped and began crying again.

"No, no, don't worry, I- I'm not- I'll stay. Don't worry." He hushed her. She didn't remove herself for another long, long moment, and he stroked the fur on her shoulders to calm her. It seemed to work, slowly but surely, as she did eventually sit back again.

"I was scared because I thought I imagined you." Lunisa said, eventually. Her motions were shaky and uneven, her body still charged with emotions she couldn't contain.

"Why would..?"

"I'm always alone, and I hate it, but others are terrifying, and mean, and they don't help." She explained. "So when I saw you, I ran. I was scared. But you kept coming, and you brought light with you, and you tried really hard to be nice. I liked it. Nobody stays. And then you left, and you didn't come back! I thought you were another dream.." Her hands dropped and she sat up, shaking her head.

"I'm sorry to say I'm not a dream, far from it." Leeyoon chuckled. "Maybe I'd know what to do if I was." Lunisa didn't chuckle, but she gave almost half a smile.

"Lunisa, why are you alone out here? You.. you don't have to be. You're a faun, you could move in to the community here easily." He asked, and put a hand on hers. She only shook her head. "If it's a matter of communication, there are fauns who speak like you do. I- I talked with one just the other night, and they have friends who communicate with them easily, and- and I don't know if you noticed, but I didn't miss a single thing you said just now, so- so there's me as well.." Still, Lunisa only shook her head.

"Alright.." He said. He bit his lip, sharp teeth digging in. They'd been sharp since the snakes had corrupted him, and hadn't gone away, but he'd gotten used to them. "Lunisa, I won't lie, I- I very much want to know what's going on, but I recognize that that is, by nature, incredibly selfish of me. So- so I think- I mean, if you ever want to talk about any of this, I'll be there to listen. But if you're not ready, or, I suppose, if you're never ready, then.. that's fine too."

She looked at him for a long moment and smiled, but the smile quickly faded.

"Why didn't you come back?"


	15. Chapter 15

He hesitated for a long moment, not sure what to say. She looked so _hurt_, so _disappointed_. Had he done that? It made his insides squirm. He'd done that, hadn't he? He _had_ left her alone, and it had _hurt_ her.

"Well, I thought you didn't want me to." Leeyoon explained. "You- you asked me to leave, and you didn't ask for me to come back, so I thought- I thought you were done with me. And- and I would not have blamed you!" He quickly added, not meaning to cast blame on her for his own mistakes, "I know I've been difficult and you don't owe me any of your time and-" He tried to continue, but his throat grew tight unexpectedly, "-and so I tried to respect what I thought you w-wanted and I didn't even mean to walk out here b-but I- I missed talking and I felt so b-bad, I, I-"

Leeyoon threw a hand up to his mouth, felt his jaw shaking and his eyes watering and his breathing break, unable to say any more, and scooted away. He may not have felt shame crying in front of Kindle, for whatever reason, but now he felt it rise up and consume him. He didn't want to appear weak when he was trying to help _her_, when he was supposed to be apologizing for and explaining his mistakes, but here he was about to bawl his eyes out _again_! He felt _sick_ with himself and all his damned emotions.

"Don't!" Lunisa signed quickly and nearly tackled him with the force of her launching at him to wrap him in her arms. He still tried to back away, but he couldn't with just his legs free and her weight around his middle.

"But I- I'm supposed- I'm supposed to be the one who helps other people- I was never meant- I was never supposed to be weak or need help or feel _bad_-! What good am I- what am I for?" He couldn't help but sob, his thoughts all running together in a wordy mess. Lunisa shook her head into his chest, but he couldn't begin to guess what that meant, and he couldn't ask. He couldn't say anything. His words were gone, swallowed up.

So he gave up and let himself cry, his little faun friend still holding him down, though it became less forceful as she realized he wasn't trying to escape. When he was done, she sat up and pulled his hand away from his mouth, still clutched as if it could have held back his very emotions. She held it between them for a good while before she wiped away a tear on his cheek. He felt childish, but at the same time he did appreciate it.

"I didn't mean to make you think I didn't want you to come back. I did. I do. Again. More." She signed. "I've never had a friend before. Not one who stayed. Not one who came back. Not when I'm so odd.. and I know I'm odd. Nobody lives like this."

"So why do you?" He asked. She looked down and said nothing. He took a deep breath and reminded himself his still-recent promise that she didn't _have_ to open up to him and instead said, "I didn't mean to be so rude last time. I- I just wanted to help, but I realized I overstepped my bounds."

"And I should have been more clear. But it's okay now, right?" She asked.

He nodded, "I think so. I haven't done anything else of disastrous effect, have I?"

"No." She signed with a chuckle.

"Good." He smiled back. The clearing grew quiet around them for a moment, until Leeyon asked, "Are we really friends? I- I don't think I've ever had one either, or.. it's been a while." He shook his head. Did Sohone really count? He didn't know, couldn't be sure.

"I think so. I'd like to be." She smiled, and held out a hand, shaking.

"I think so too." He said back, and wiped away the last of his tears. He put a hand of his own in hers, their grips tight together. "Sorry for crying like a tadpole."

"Not at all! I cried too! I cried first!" She signed. "I think we both needed to-" It seemed like she wanted to say more, but she yawned deeply then, and shook her head to clear it but obviously only made herself dizzy.

"Lunisa, do you ever sleep?" Leeyoon asked, putting a hand on her shoulder. She looked at him with a grimace, ears low. He could guess that meant no. "Why not?"

She bit her cheek then, thinking. They shared that habit, it seemed. "I'm scared." She signed eventually.

"Scared? Of what?" What could make someone so afraid to sleep?

Lunisa shook her head.

"No? Okay, that's.. that's fine. Ah.. can I.. do something? To make it better?" He offered, but he felt stupid. What could he offer to make her unafraid to sleep? But, she looked thoughtful, as if she was actually considering something.

"Stay?" She asked.

"Stay? While you sleep?"

She nodded, embarrassed.

"..certainly." He said. He'd offered, after all, and if this was the solution, well, he'd do it! Friends did that kind of thing, didn't they? And as they were friends and he cared about her wellbeing and she _asked_, he'd do it!

"Are you sure?" She perked up.

"Yes. If it will help you, then yes." He smiled affirmatively, or what he hoped read as such. She gave him a wide smile and grabbed his hand, patting the dirt beside her in the crook of the two roots. "Should I stay awake?" He asked as he settled in.

"No. Just stay." She signed, already sleepy. She must be exhausted, he thought, to fall asleep so quickly. She leaned her head back against the wood of the tree and became still, her breathing slow. Very exhausted, he concluded.

He was not, however, not enough to sleep, even after crying so thoroughly. He felt a bit silly for it still, but she had a point. If they were to be friends, they had to be honest, didn't they? And he'd asked a lot of her, even if he was accepting that she might not talk about it the questions still hung, he felt, and so his own emotional honesty was only fair. And, as with Kindle, she'd been right that he'd needed to let it out.

The night passed around them, warm and steady and comfortable. The birds slowly came to sing around them, though distantly, and to pass the time he began to hum. Even from a short distance, the plants could hear him and responded, and lit up the clearing around the tree with soft and delicate glows.

As if attracted to the sound, Lunisa slumped into him, her head coming to rest on his shoulder. Leeyoon stiffened at first, afraid to wake her, and partly embarrassed as he remembered how she'd grabbed his face earlier, but he slowly relaxed again. Were friends supposed to do those sorts of things too? He wasn't familiar. He'd seen others, of course, but he'd always been led to believe that physical proximity was reserved for romantic partners or family members, which she was not.

But, he decided, he didn't mind it. It wasn't uncomfortable, it was actually quite pleasant. She was warm and her fur, though thin, was soft against his leathery skin, and the slow pulse of her breathing was like a song he could feel against him. It was relaxing, and it made him feel a small warmth besides just the low heat of her form. He thought it was happiness, or perhaps contentment.

He delicately shifted down, minding her head on his shoulder, and leaned his own head against the tree. He only meant to watch the moon go across the sky, but soon he felt his eyelids droop, and soon after that they were more closed than open, and soon after that he was asleep.


	16. Chapter 16

Leeyoon hissed awake several hours later, his foot unfortunate enough to have come to rest under a dapple of sunlight, and he had slept so well that he hadn't moved in hours. The light and the heat burned him, he and the world and the sun itself all uncaring until it reached a tipping point that caused his mind to jolt him awake, the pain too much to sleep through. He cried out a wordless yelp and yanked his foot out of the sun, clutching it as if he could tear out the pain.

The movement and the sound awoke his companion with a start- Lunisa bolted upright and away in a single movement, running right into the hill across from their tree.

Not fully awake, startled both by the pain in his foot and Lunisa's own panic, Leeyoon fell into the empty space she'd filled, knocking his head against the root of the tree.

"Ow!" He yelled, then flipped over, realizing that Lunisa had run away again. He need to find her, needed to catch up, needed-

She was stuck, panicking too much to effectively climb the hill, slipping every other time she reached to climb away, the rocks crumbling beneath her hands. She was in a blind panic, he realized.

Leeyoon stumbled, legs half asleep and half in pain, toward Lunisa, hands out. As soon as he put his hands on her shoulders, though, she whipped around, snarling and kicking. It startled him away, his heart pounding in fear he didn't know he could feel, but it ached more to know that this was, somehow,_ regular_ for her. She was conditioned to behave this way.

"Lunisa, it's me..!" He held his hands out, palms up, edging slowly closer. He hissed as he stepped on his burnt foot, but he held it in. "Lunisa, whatever has you frightened, it's not here. You're safe!" He pleaded.

It took a long moment, but her face relaxed, and her eyes focused first on his hand, then scattered their way up to his face until finally she met his eyes. She reached out a hand of her own slowly, missing his open hand at first, trembling when they finally met. Leeyoon sat down, still holding her hand.

"Are you alright?" He asked, afraid to speak and break the tentative calm she'd found, but she nodded, panting. The sun was hot overhead, and he desperately wanted to get out of it, but he didn't know how to move on from such a sudden and alarming wake up call. Lunisa, similarly, looked at the ground with what he thought was shame, but he couldn't figure out what there was to be ashamed of.

He didn't get a chance to ask her, as she surprised him with a hug. He patted her back, reminded of how she'd been last night, and wondered how many times she'd needed this and hadn't got it. He wanted to ask again after her past, but he just held her. That was what she needed, after all, not for him to badger her again.

When she pulled away, she dried her eyes and tucked her knees to her chest. "I'm sorry." She signed.

"What for?"

"For making that face at you. It's not nice."

"No worries!" He laughed. "You were scared- that's probably my fault for jumping like I did.. My foot was in the sun and it was starting to burn.." He explained. She cocked her head to the side and pointed after his foot, tucked behind him. Feeling silly, he brought it around. It wasn't _bad_, just a bit red and cracked in some places, but it did hurt.

"Why did this happen? I sleep in the sun all the time!" She asked, staring at the injury.

"Well, I'm not a faun. I'm an amphibian. Your kind is meant for being on land, but mine come from the water, and the heat and light of the sun can be very dangerous for us. I used to have more an immunity to it, but I.. I guess I lost it." He realized that spending months in his cave probably made him less immune to a lot of things, the sun being one of them.

"Fix it?" She asked, eyebrows tight together.

"It'll take time. If we found some star fruit, that would be helpful, but otherwise just time will heal it. A swim wouldn't be bad either." He thought aloud. "I don't suppose you know how to swim, or care to?" He asked, doubting that she would be interested, but she beamed brightly and nodded.

"There's a little river not far!" She signed, already leaping to her hooves.

"Alright, then let's go-" He yelped as she pulled him to his feet, his bad foot protesting beneath him. "Oooh!" He hissed, hopping.

Lunisa steadied him, looking worriedly at him again.

"No, no, I swear it's fine! I really haven't been out and about as much as I used to.." He laughed it off, stepping cautiously on the injured foot again. "See? I just had to get used to it. Now, to that river!"

Lunisa looked at him with doubt for a moment more, then smiled and took his hand to lead him to the river. He felt silly about feeling silly about her concern, but he wasn't used to all this expressed affection. First Kindle, then the fauns, and now her? He'd badly misread the world when he'd thought no one cared for him, and he felt.. odd. He'd gotten used to being lonely, he supposed, and being used to something sometimes makes one fond for it, even when it's not necessarily a good thing.

But then she held his hand tightly, and he felt that he wouldn't go back to being lonely or thinking he was alone if he could have this. It was pleasant; it filled him with a sense of warmth that even the sun couldn't rival, and the cold and bleakness of loneliness couldn't hope to touch.

As Lunisa had said, the river wasn't far at all, just a few minutes walk through the woods, the terrain changing, becoming hillier and sandier. And then, there it was, cutting through the forest. It was deep but not wide, and very old. Leeyoon was surprised he hadn't run into it at all during his initial look for his feral faun friend.

Lunisa clapped with glee upon arrival, letting go of his hand to do so. He noticed that his hand felt odd now that it was empty again, but he didn't linger on that thought, and instead took off for the water with Lunisa shortly after. He jumped in, letting the cool water run over him and fill his lungs. It was heavier than breathing air, but just as familiar to him.

Leeyoon surfaced to find Lunisa still on land. "Not coming in?"

She shrugged, "Looks cold."

"Oh, it is, a bit. But the day is warm; aren't you hot?"

"No." She shook her head. "I'm chilly."

"Oh." That was peculiar. Perhaps it was because of her thin fur, or lack of weight in general that she was so apparently cold. Most fauns almost _needed_ to escape even this spring day heat, and slept in their cool caves to do so. "I can get out, then, no need to-"

"No, no, you swim. I'll watch." She shook her head, settling on the bank. Leeyoon might have blushed if he was able; as much as he had once been used to being the center of attention, he wasn't _anymore_. Still, Lunisa already seemed not too focused on him alone, her eyes obviously focusing on other things, namely the water itself, so he let himself relax.

A few laps up and down the river, lazy as can be, and he was as calm as the river itself, and the warm spring day drifted by just as lazily as he.


	17. Chapter 17

"Well, I feel much better!" Leeyoon cheered as he swam to the shore. "How about you? I didn't get a chance to ask how you slept."

"Fine." Lunisa shrugged, obviously uncomfortable. She hesitated for a moment before adding, "Better than I have in a while."

"I'm glad to have helped, then." Leeyoon said simply, arms coming to rest on the cliff-like bank. The dirt was soft, but it held up underneath him, and he rested his chin on his crossed forearms. The air was starting to chill, and the almost-golden-hour sun was pleasantly warm. "So, you said, or, ah, demonstrated that you spend a lot time.. dancing, was it? What else do you do? Surely you have several hobbies, all the free time you have.. If you don't mind me asking."

"No, not at all!" She smiled. "Mostly I travel. I walk for days and nights sometimes, to see how far I can go at once. I dance, when the feeling strikes me. I tell myself stories, too, sometimes."

"Stories?" Leeyoon sat up a bit, curious. "Like what?" If he knew what stories she knew, he would know what part of the world she was from, what her culture was like, and it would help him understand her better. It would also be an amazing opportunity to hear a foreign tale from someone directly, rather than through a possibly outdated book or tutor.

"Oh, like.." She dropped her hands, puzzled for a moment, looking around as if for inspiration. "That leaf!" She pointed. Leeyoon looked above them, to a tiny, incredibly green leaf that was obviously just sprouted. A leaf, like any other. He was deeply confused, but she continued, "Just a few days ago, that leaf was just a bud, and before that, it was just a lump in the tree's branch. I like to tell myself stories of why it formed there, and how it felt for that leaf to form for the first time and see the sun. I bet it was so happy! How wonderful to come alive, part of something bigger, and feel something as wonderful as sunlight!"

He was about to say that that wasn't what he meant when she continued, "And the river! How long has it lived here? Surely a long time. See how deep it's cut the land? It's been here long enough to do that, and it's such a gentle thing that it must have taken a very long time. What has this river seen? Who else has passed over it? Maybe children, maybe adults, maybe only shadows and birds and deer, but only the river knows for sure. I like to imagine those kinds of stories."

Leeyoon was disappointed at first. It wasn't what he'd thought she meant, but it turned out to be what he'd hoped for. She apparently didn't have any stories as he'd thought of them, the grand mythos of the world, developed by the peoples and tribes scattered across it over the several thousand years they'd been wandering it, but her stories were obviously important to her, full of curiosity and a deep wonder for the world.

He had to admit, he hadn't ever considered 'stories' like that before, and he was suddenly very curious as to how the world around them had come to be what it was. So many things would have had to happen to make things just as they were, and he hadn't seen so much as a sliver of it all. He had caused some footprints, rustled some grass, disrupted the grass and even the bottom of the river in his swimming, and who knew what effects those actions would all have down the line! How many other tiny, seemingly insignificant actions had to happen to make it all as it was? What if only a single blade of grass had been altered, ungrown or shifted the tiniest amount? Would an entire tree have failed to grow, its seeds needed light blotted out? Would two more have grown, given the room and time that single blade of grass allowed?

The possibilities were suddenly limitless, and the world felt fuller than he thought it could have ever been.

His wandering mind was brought back to the present by Lunisa snapping a finger. He blinked and focused on her. She seemed jokingly irritated, signing, "I _said_, what kind of stories do you have?" She raised an eyebrow at him, smirking.

"Oh, well, have you heard the story about the sun and the moon, and how they came to be?" It was the most basic of stories, that every faun, fish, and feldspar knew. If she didn't know this one, he thought, it would mean she had been alone a lot longer than anyone ought to ever be.

"The sun and the moon?" She repeated, and then shook her head.

Leeyoon hid his sigh with a smile and said, "Good! It's the one I know best. It's, ah, a bit more specific than your stories, though. We tell each other the same stories over and over, so most people already know this one, where yours are a bit more.. unique. Is that alright?" He asked, worried she wouldn't enjoy the tale.

"Please!" Leeyoon smiled widely, and pulled himself a little further onto the bank.

"They say that long ago, our world had no source of light but the stars themselves. One day, before there was day or night, only dark, an incredibly strong man threw a chain into the sky to bring a star, our sun, down to our planet. Many had tried before, but their ropes all burned away from the heat of the sun, and so the people continued to live in the cold and the dark, wishing for light. The man forged the first metal, and forged it into chains so big and so strong that even the sun couldn't melt it, and harpooned with those chains, he brought it down from the sky.

So at last we had day, and heat, and the world blossomed with it, but now no one could sleep with the whole world lit up and so hot, no matter how far back into the sky they let the sun go. They needed something to balance it. They had wished for the sun, but they _dreamed_ of the moon. It was a hope so deep that it made something new entirely; the world of dreams, but no one could visit it yet, because no one could sleep.

But, one man felt the call of the world of dreams, and he passed through the worlds, through a door only he could open, and retrieved the moon. The moon, the calm and the patient, where the sun is determined and fiesty. Both persistent, both important, the opposite, and yet the same. Both coming from somewhere beyond us, but by our own, tiny hands." He said, reciting the old tale with a flourish or two of his own. Everyone did it, but the end result was always the same: a man brought down the sun, and a man brought over the moon. "And it's been day and night ever since."

Lunisa seemed enthralled by his rendition, staring up at the passing sun with a new kind of wonder. "So it wasn't always like this?"

"No. Some people think they're just legends, but I know for a fact that at least the moon's part of the tale is true."

"You do? How?" She turned to him quickly, eyes wide and mouth shut tight in something not quite a frown. He'd forgotten that she wasn't speaking aloud for a moment, and the effect was a bit chilling. Worse, he wasn't sure he was ready to talk about his past as almost-guardian of the moon, and so he didn't know how to respond.

"W-well, I- I know the guardian of the moon!" He blurt out. "I've seen the door, and I've seen him go through it, so- so I know the world of dreams is real!" He said. It wasn't a lie, even if it wasn't the whole truth. Did she really need to know that he'd let the moon die? That he was almost, at least in part, no matter how big or small, responsible for the end of the world?

He felt himself shaking, afraid. If she knew, would she hate him? If she knew, would she send him away? If she knew, would she think he was weak?

If she knew, would she see him for who he really was?

"That's amazing.." He barely caught the motion of her hands or the meaning behind it, but it snapped him back. "I knew there were big creatures who walked for the sun and moon, but I didn't know they were guards, or that the moon one could walk through worlds."

"Well," He couldn't help but laugh, "That's not _quite_ how it works.."


	18. Chapter 18

It took a while to explain everything, but she was deeply curious and eager to learn. He hardly noticed when night fell, climbing out of the water even as he was talking, too excited to share to be concerned with menial concepts like time. She wanted to know what he knew, and he wanted to be so important as to hold her attention, expand her world, and perhaps even brighten her night.

"So, to summarize," She said, "The sun and the moon are guarded by the Guardians, who are connected to them for several hundred years, get neat powers, and rule the world and keep balance all that time. The first guardians made the temples to help them carry the sun and the moon, and they're magic too."

"All correct." Leeyoon nodded. It was a very truncated version, but it was accurate. Leeyoon felt proud to have so succinctly taught her that she could shorten the history so well.

"Amazing! How do you know all this?" She rocked with excitement.

"O-oh, well, I've.. I've spent my life learning about these things, that's all. I- I was expected to be well educated." More half-truths, but what could he do without bringing up-

"Is it to do with what you were 'supposed to be'?" She asked, nailing his worries with a single, succinct blow. She was nothing if not observant.

"Y- yes.." He allowed, but didn't feel brave enough to expand on.

"You know.. it's okay to not want to talk about things." She signed slowly, gently, reaching over to pat him on the hand. He frowned at first, feeling obligated now that she'd mentioned it, but he looked up to see her smiling reassuringly, and he couldn't not smile back, effectively reassured. "Why don't you tell me more about your people? I clearly don't know a lot about you!"

"Really? I feel like I've been chattering away all day and half the night-" He gestured to the sky, realizing that his joke was more true than he'd intended when he saw the moon already past the halfway point of the night, "- oh dear. I really _have_ been chattering away, haven't I..?" He grimaced.

"I don't mind at all!" She laughed, shoulders bobbing up and down in the motion of laughter without the sound. Still, Leeyoon felt as if he could hear the sound she might make, and was delighted by it. "I like hearing you talk. You know so much, and you talk really well."

"You flatter me!" He said, trying to be humble, conscious once again of how he'd gotten when he'd gotten too much positive attention. He'd turned into the sort of man who'd trade his world for the moon, and damn them both. He didn't want to be that again.

"But I mean it!" Lunisa insisted. "It's really nice, the way you talk. You don't talk to me like I'm stupid just because I can't talk with my mouth! You don't treat me like a child, or a freak.. You just talk to me."

"Don't forget it took me a whole night to realize that, though." He said darkly, furious at himself again.

"But you came back! You made an effort to learn- look how you aren't even using the book anymore! Nobody-" She halted, deciding to continue only hesitantly, "-nobody's done that before."

"Then.. how did you learn?" He asked, just as hesitantly. Was this too much, too close to the other things she wouldn't talk about, or might he learn just a little bit more about her past?

"Honestly, I don't remember." She said, grim and sighing. "But oh well, right?" She shrugged with an attempt at a smile, but Leeyoon knew it was really bothering her. Still, he didn't know what to say. He'd hoped to get answers to _his_ questions, and didn't even consider she might not even have them.

His stomach growled loudly then, as did hers. "Oh my! I suppose we should find something to eat.." He laughed.

"I saw a grapevine a while back." Lunisa suggested, pulling to her hooves and stretching.

"Sounds fine to me. Would you still like to hear about my people while we walk?"

"Yes!"

"Very well! Ah, but where to begin?"

"Where do you live? I've never seen anyone like you before, so it must be far away."

"Not terribly, actually. I walked… west to get here, so I came from the east. A couple nights' walk to the east, deep in the forest past the plains, there are cave systems that feed deep into the planet. My people live there. We live in the water that floods those system, living off the plants and small creatures that live there too."

"Isn't it.. dark?" Lunisa signed nervously, ears tipped back.

"You'd think, but everything that lives there can produce its own light, myself included. Or, in theory. I haven't lived there in so long, I'm not sure I can actually _do_ that anymore. But, just as the fauns sing to the plants and help them grow and live, my people sing those in the water, nurturing their light. I wish I could show you- entire caverns the size of this forest, full of water and yet flooded with light. There are rhythms to it, like a heartbeat, and you can always tell how far away from a cavern by the strength of the pulse in the tunnels. It's like dancing stars.." Leeyoon sighed, reminiscing.

"Do you miss it? Why are you here if you love it there? Why not go back?"

"Oh, well.. I don't think about it often, and it doesn't really feel like 'home' anymore. It's been about eight years since I lived there, and I don't think I belong there anymore. And if I did go back.. how might things have changed? I might be disappointed by how much it's changed, or worse, if it hasn't. And I'd rather not.. well, nevermind that. I think I see your grapevines up here." He broke off, trotting ahead at what _did_ look an awful lot like grapevines. He heard Lunisa following up behind him, but he couldn't see if she was going to try to say anything, and he felt sick thinking about what else she might ask him.

But, she didn't ask him anything, just came up to the grapevine beside him and started plucking, joining his awkward hands with her own more confident ones. As they grabbed several bunches each, Leeyoon hummed his thanks to the plant, its siblings and neighbors lighting up in response.

They sat not far away, eating quietly. Leeyoon felt awkward for breaking the conversation like he did, even if Lunisa wasn't asking after it or making a fuss about it like he had. He felt childish for being so unwilling to talk about simple things, especially considering the way he'd initially treated her. Though she seemed to genuinely not mind his silence, it stung how she was more emotionally mature than he was. He'd once thought so highly of himself, and he was still coming to realize all the ways he wasn't quite what he'd thought he was.

That wasn't to say he disliked that she was more mature than him, he_ did_ appreciate it. He was simply experiencing growing pains, the kind that can only be felt by realizing how much more you have to grow.

"So," Lunisa signed in between grapes, "If your people live in the water, how are you on land? Aren't you like a fish?"

"No, no. Well, sort of." He coughed, "The word we have for ourselves more or less means 'smart fish', but it's not completely accurate. We're more like frogs than anything. We are dependent on water for the first few years of life, but once we lose our tadpole tails we can walk on land and breathe air. Most of my people choose to ceremoniously spend one night on land, and then return to water for the rest of their lives, but I.. I chose to come learn."

"That makes you pretty special, huh?"


	19. Chapter 19

"B- What? No, not at all, I'm- I'm nobody." He coughed again, almost choking. "I'm- I am absolutely nobody."

"Yes, so!" She almost glared at him. "You're the only one of your kind to come out in this big wide world, that makes you _amazing_!"

"It makes me an oddity." He grimaced.

"That's dumb. I think you're neat." She decided, and went back to eating her grapes with a quiet and regal determination that seemed fitting of someone far above her station. Leeyoon chuckled, then belted out laughing so hard that he fell backwards, wheezing. He was vaguely aware of her signing, "What, what!?" over and over above him as he laughed hysterically.

When he finally calmed down, she gave him a slightly more serious glare, asking again, "What was so funny? I meant what I said."

"I know, that's- that's _why_ it's funny." He wiped away a tear, "I know that sounds horrible, I just- My whole life I was told I was important, and then it turned out I wasn't, but now- I don't know, I just- it's just- you really believe I'm something special. You hardly know me."

"So?" She asked, accusingly, a dark eyebrow crooked low over her eye in half-playful defiance.

"So- you don't know- the things I've done, who I've been, where I come from, or- or anything."

"I do know you. I know things you've done. I know who you've been with me, and you just told me where you came from." She pointed out, "I think I know you well enough to say that."

"What if I'm different? What if I've been different- what if I'm not even sure who I am? How can you say someone like that is special?"

"I don't know." She shrugged honestly. "You're like the leaf."

"What?"

"The leaf. There's thousands like it, on thousands of trees across the whole planet. But that leaf _isn't_ any other leaf. It's the leaf that it is, and so many things happened to make that leaf be the leaf it is instead of any other leaf. That makes it special. That makes _you_ special. I don't have to know all the things that happened to know that."

"That is.. incredibly convincing." Leeyoon laughed shortly. "Did you know you're incredible?"

"Me?" She scoffed. "I'm the actual nobody."

"Now who's the stalk calling the leaf green?" He elbowed her. "I mean it, though. As much as you did. You're alone all the time, and yet you are the friendliest, kindest person I think I've ever met. You _survive_ out here, whereas I- well, I think I would go mad."

"Who's to say I'm not?"

"Well, you don't seem mad to me, so I suppose I'm who's to say." Leeyoon declared.

"You've got me there." She rolled her eyes. "Hey, do you know why all the others have short tails?" She asked suddenly.

"Wh- what?"

"Their tails. They're short." She pointed at her tail, swinging it around to lay across her lap.

"Well, for one, I think they don't grow as long as yours, and for another they clip their tails when they're young. Fauns who keep their extra tails can get sick or injured. I- I think it's because the extra length is weak, so they clip it rather than let it break." He shrugged. "It's a very important ceremony for young fauns, and it's a family matter, so I've never actually seen it done. I used to think they were like my people, and their tails just stopped growing at a certain age, but no."

"That's weird." She shuddered. "I always wondered why they had short tails, and why they're so much darker than I am."

"You're so pale because you sleep in the sun. It bleaches out your color." Leeyoon said with certainty. "The same thing happens to rock people."

"Rock people?" Lunisa's ears dropped then, her eyes wide and dilated.

"Yes? What's wrong?" He felt his own fins drop too; he didn't like seeing her so afraid.

"Are- are there any of those near here?"

"No, a good distance to the east. Why?" Lunisa pressed her hands together, her mouth sealed into a tight straight line. "Lunisa?"

"They don't like me." She signed quickly.

"Okay. Then.. then we'll make sure we stay away from them."

"We?"

"Well.. I was- I was under the assumption- you did still want me to come back, didn't you?"

"Oh! Yes," She nodded, "I'm sorry."

"No, don't be. Whatever happened, it won't happen again." He promised her, putting a hand out on her shoulder. She relaxed a bit at his touch and smiled tiredly.

"Thank you."

"You seem tired, Lunisa. It's been a long night- and, ah, day, I suppose."

"I'm fine." She said shortly again.

"If you say so." He nodded. She nodded, as if agreeing with herself, and they went back to eating quietly.

Lunisa finished before he did, and though she sat for a while, she soon began fidgeting. Despite what she'd said, Leeyoon thought she was deeply tired. She'd said she didn't sleep often, and that she'd better than she had in a while, or something to that effect, but he didn't take that to mean that she was well-rested, and he realized that she intended to not sleep for as long as possible after. She was nearly nodding off just sitting next to him, save for her fidgeting, so he knew she was still exhausted. The question burned inside him; why did she do this?

But, he couldn't ask. He'd promised he wouldn't ask if she wasn't ready to answer.

"You say you travel often; what sort of places have you gone?" He asked.

"I mostly stay in the same general area. There's where the other hooved ones live," She said, and took a moment to draw a rough, small shape in the dirt between them. ", that I avoid. I go around to the east, south, and north of them. I've been down close to this rock city," she drew a new shape far below and to the left- west- of the faun community, "- but after last time I stay away from there too. One time I went along the southern coastline and saw a rock town built into the cliffs in the far east, but I haven't gone back. I've never been to the eastern plains, beyond the forest, because there are a lot more short tails there, and the north is too cold. I've seen the big blue hole, but that place scares me."

Leeyoon looked over her little map as she finished drawing it. It was, to his knowledge, to scale and accurate, which seemed impressive to him. He didn't know much about map making or geography beyond the immediate three civilizations he was aware of in the area, but he wasn't sure he could make something half as accurate as this.

"So that would put where you said you came from right around here." Lunisa pointed to an area just west of where she'd said the eastern fauns were, and he nodded.

"That whole forest grows above us." He said. "You've been all over the world, practically. How.. how long have you been traveling?"

"My whole life.." She sighed, and sat back, looking up at the descending moon. "I want to say I remember fifteen years. There's a long time before that I don't remember."

"And.. you've been alone all that time?" He asked slowly. She looked down from the moon and blinked at him.

"Yes." She signed flatly, no readable emotion on her face or in her motion. She dropped her hand to her lap and turned back to the moon.

"I'm sorry." He said quietly.

"Don't be. I'm used to traveling and being alone." She shrugged. "Besides, I'm not alone anymore." She said with a smile that made her ears stand up.

"I have you."


	20. Chapter 20

He was flattered beyond belief. It felt as if she was putting all her faith in him, genuinely and fully and it astounded him. It was a truth that was so true he didn't dare disbelieve it, even if, under any other circumstance, said by anyone else in any other moment, he would have scoffed or secretly doubted.

How could he doubt her, when she smiled like that?

Leeyoon stayed silent for a long while, and Lunisa didn't say anything else, seeming happy and content with what she'd already said.

He felt warm with happiness, almost too warm, like the flush of shame, but it wasn't that at all. He was genuinely happy- pleased by what she'd said- because it was true. He intended to be around for her, and she _knew_ it. It was so lovely to be understood, he thought, even if they were new to each other still. They understood each other, and it hadn't even taken words.

It did disturb him that she'd been alone for presumably her whole life, and it was the only thing that upset the warm glow of what else she'd said. And how powerfully it upset him. Yes, he was here and he intended to stay as long as she could tolerate him, for both their benefits if he was being fully honest with himself, but why did she have to be alone so long before him? It didn't seem fair, especially considering how undeservingly decent she'd been to him. How could someone as nice and as good as her be left alone for so long?

She'd even implied that she'd been treated poorly on purpose. Not with many of her words, but her actions. She was used to running, used to being alone, and dreadfully afraid of, or at least uncomfortable with, the most common people of the day. While it was true that most denizens of night were unfamiliar with or prejudiced against those of the day, _fear_ was something else entirely.

But, he still wouldn't ask. It wasn't his place.

He yawned then, and the length of the day he'd had caught up with him suddenly. He blinked to dispel the tiredness, but it didn't work, and truthfully seemed to make it worse.

"You should go home." Lunisa signed. He could tell she was disappointed.

"I don't want to leave you alone so soon." He said, forcing himself to sit up straighter. "Besides, we're having fun. I'd hate to cut that short."

She raised an eyebrow at him doubtfully, ever playful in tone.

"I don't want to leave so soon.." He mumbled again.

"You need sleep. Fun can't last forever." She said, pushing him lightly.

"But you-"

"I'm used to this." She said, her signs faster than his bumbling words. "And I don't need to you to watch me. I've lived this long." She said it as a joke, but he wondered if maybe she still said it with a hint of bitterness. Not at him, per se, but at her situation. Humor was like lying; there was always a bit of truth in there somewhere. Was the truth behind her joke that she did want him to stay?

He couldn't make up her mind for her, though. It would be rude to assume he knew her wants and needs better than her, so he had to go with what she was saying, and what she was saying was that she thought he should go.

"Well.. alright. If _you_ are certain.." He emphasized that this was her call. Tired though he was, he would try to stay and stay awake if she wanted. But, she nodded.

"Go. Sleep. The sun should be up soon." She smiled, but it wasn't that heart-warming, blood-stopping smile. It was a casual smile, the kind one might use to hide a lie, believable and common and easy to fake.

"Alright then." He said with a nod. He wanted to stay, but she told him he could go, and he would_ like_ to sleep, so it was best to go. Lunisa held out her hands, already standing, and helped him to his feet. He hadn't noticed her stand, and felt silly for it.

"I.. I hate to be redundant, but I just want to be sure.." He mumbled, feeling sillier by the second, "You'll be alright?"

"As long as you come back." She signed with an affirmative nod.

"Then I'll be back." He nodded back.

She only smiled a little wider, hands tucked into one another while his sort of opened and closed, as unsure as he was about what to do. But he shuffled on his feet, and remembered- realized- he was meant to go, and he smiled awkwardly. He really_ didn't_ want to go, but he had been asked, tantamount to being requested, to leave, and so he would.

"Tomorrow." He said, more for himself than her, as he backed away. She only nodded again, and had to visibly, forcibly stop herself from following after, stepping backward and away from him. Tomorrow, he reassured himself, and turned and walked away.

He wanted to look behind him, to see if she was alright, as if she couldn't be trusted with her own self without him, but he kept his eyes on the dirt and the grass and the dead leaves beneath and before him. He did so until he was home, even until he was on the precipice of his little cave, full of water, still and peaceful. And then, even then, having arrived, he had to pry his eyes away from the ground to look behind him, just to make sure she wasn't there. If she was, he didn't know what he would do but go back to her, sleep be damned.

The sun was rising, as she'd predicted, and she wasn't behind him when he finally did look up from his feet to look behind him. The clearing was clear, the air turning yellow with the rising sun. The air was already warming, and he was uncomfortable in the climbing heat, but he looked around the clearing at least twice before he ducked into his cave, climbed down the slopes and into the water, and closed his eyes.

His heart twisted, knowing she was alone out there. He ought to be with her. She shouldn't be alone. He was here, surrounded by the other fauns, even if they were asleep in their own caves and tunnels not directly connected to his. He need only call, and someone would hear, wouldn't they? Even if she could speak aloud, her calls wouldn't be heard. She was too far away, and her voice would only be recognized by him anyway, so who would run for her but he, if he were lucky enough to hear it?

As he settled into the bottom of his watery bed, tired and sleepy but hating it, he vowed she would only be alone as little as possible. He would start training himself to sleep less, or sleep better, or something. He would do whatever he could to ensure that she wasn't alone for very long.

He had so little power in the world, but he could at least do this.


	21. Chapter 21

He woke early, having slept deeply, and rose to go to Lunisa, excited after having been away for what felt like so long, and now welcomed back. The sun was still out, but he was not the first to have arisen when he surfaced from his cave.

Aster was sitting out in the middle of the clearing, and he might have thought they were humming to themself for the way they were rocking and bopping their head. But, he knew that they were mute, just as silent as Lunisa.

"Hello, friend. What are you doing awake so early?" Leeyoon asked as he approached. Aster turned as if they didn't expect him to come from the way he had, and blinked before responding.

"I thought I would catch you coming home!" They signed, delightedly surprised. "But you seem to be going out!"

"Yes, I made it home just as the sun was rising, rather late.. Why try to catch me at all?"

"You weren't here last night or the day or night before, so I assumed you met up with your friend in the woods. I wanted to see how it went." They signed, smiling wickedly. "How did it go?"

Leeyoon balked at the implication of their smile and responded with a squeak, "Just _fine_. It turns out she thought I would be coming back, so you all were right.." He huffed, ashamed of the unintentional squeak. He'd been haunted by that vocal anomaly, uncontrollable when he was emotional, for his whole life. He'd _hoped_ he'd grow out of it with age, but no.

Aster only smirked.

"Oh, hush up." Leeyoon grumbled and started on his way. Aster quickly jumped to their feet and followed after.

"Come on! Tell me! Tell me about her!" Aster pleaded, their signs wide and desperate and playful- almost as playful as Lunisa. Leeyoon couldn't help but smile and shrug.

"But where to start?"

"What did you do all day and all night?"

"We talked!" Leeyoon said with barely contained delight. "We shared stories and thoughts, and I even learned where she's traveled. She's been nearly all over the world, can you believe?"

"The _whole_ world?" Aster asked with eyes wide and starry.

"Nearly." Leeyoon nodded. "She drew me a map."

"A what?" Aster looked up at him funnily, eyebrows screwed and bunched up.

"A map, a.. a picture of the world." He'd forgotten that most fauns wouldn't understand the concept of a map, as they were not prone to iconography or writing at all. "Something to represent the real places she'd been, you see."

"I think so." Aster nodded. "And this.. thing, she'd been to a lot of places on it?"

"Yes, quite a lot. A lot of places I haven't been, at least." Leeyoon shrugged. For all that he'd read, he hadn't _been_ many places at all, and he knew that Aster had been in the community all their life. The farthest a faun like them might have gone was to the stadium, the meeting place of the sun and moon on that fateful night-day?- when he'd been passed over for Mune as guardian. Even that was just a half hour's walk at the most, though.

"Amazing!" Aster smiled as they signed. "Will you go those places with her, do you think?"

"Oh. I don't.. I don't know." Leeyoon hadn't thought about it. He knew that Lunisa was a traveller, so would she eventually want to leave? If so, per his recent vow to not leave her alone longer than necessary, would he go with her? He didn't know if he would be _able_ to, given his need for water every once in a while and the unpredictability of the wild, but he didn't know that he _wouldn't_ be able to, given his desire to keep her safe. He'd made _promises_.

The moon might have gone back on promises made to him, but he'd never go back on his own.

"Well, if you do, you have to come back and tell us all what you see, huh?" Aster only beamed, unaware of the new conflict they'd stirred in Leeyoon. Still, it was a question he was sure was for a more distant than soon future, and thus not yet his problem. He smiled and nodded as Aster stopped at the edge of some unseen border, while he easily stepped over it. Aster waved, question already answered in their mind, and Leeyoon waved back.

"I'll be back soon, I'm sure." He assured them, though he knew his intent was to stay away as long as possible, for Lunisa's sake. Every moment he was away from her was a moment she was alone, and a moment he wasn't keeping his promise. 'Soon' was relative, in any case.

He hummed as he went along, in a good and cheery mood, excited to see her. He really had enjoyed their conversations the night and day previous, and was excited to say and know more with her.

He headed to their tree, where their seeds were planted, hoping that was where she'd be. He was right, though he didn't know it until he was nearly upon her and the tree. He heard the rustling of leaves and branches, and thought it a wind at first, but he felt no breeze and heard nothing but the one or two sounds at a time, too small and specific for even the smallest wind to register on his poor ears. No, as he approached, he saw her dancing.

It was nothing like he'd seen when she'd demonstrated. That was reserved compared to this, this sweeping of arm and leg and tail, spinning and twirling and diving and leaping, moving in ways that felt like poetry unbound from language or knowing, but understood by feeling. He felt a twinge of shame watching her in secret, but as she went around, leg and arm sweeping high and wide, he couldn't help but hear a song in his head. It was as if she was dancing to a song he learned as a child, a song no one but his people knew, familiar and old and sacred.

"Just as the icy water's rising.." He mumbled to himself, "See the pale moon as she's rising, so bright and pale and white, against the dark of night.." His voice grew too strong, and she stumbled in her dance, though she kept her balance enough not to fall, and he stood up as if he could catch her from behind the tree and bush, arms out and hands splayed.

She looked at him as if she'd done the shameful thing, not he who'd been watching her like a sneaking child.

"S-sorry." Leeyoon said, putting his hands down at his sides. "It- It was- you were doing- I thought you could use some music." He babbled. "I- I didn't want to ruin your concentration, but I.. I guess I did anyway."

But, "No." She shook her head. "I was just surprised."

"I should have said hello first.." He chuckled, but she shook her head again.

"No, that you sang so well!" She seemed to laugh herself, tucking her cheek into her shoulder as if a bashful child.

"You liked that?" He stood up a little straighter. "That's how my people sing, with words rather than just sounds.. I didn't think a faun could, er, would appreciate such a thing.."

"Well, I like it." Lunisa signed cheerfully, trotting over to him, hands open. "Do it again?"

Leeyoon grinned, feeling as special as she'd called him just the night before.

"And what should I sing?"


	22. Chapter 22

They spent weeks talking of everything and nothing, Leeyoon singing and Lunisa dancing, both delighted by the others' talent and happiness therein. He hadn't sung like that in such a long time that he'd half-forgotten the skill and the words, but just a couple days with her insisting that he put his voice to work made all the old words and tunes come back to him.

For the first time in ages, he simply was. He forgot all that he was previously expected to be, and only was what she wanted him to be, which seemed to be whatever he wanted to be. He felt free, her expectations so little of him that he felt like a flower under a summer sun; free to grow and bloom.

And soon was summer properly upon them, the sun lower and hotter in the sky, and all of nature growing more vibrant and wild around them. They watched their seeds grow over time and planted more, and they talked both in day and in night, and true to his word, kept only between himself, he learned how to belay and delay sleep to keep on with her as long as possible.

It turned out that he could only go about a day and a night without fully exhausting himself, and she seemed sleepless in comparison. Aside from that one time, she did not permit herself to sleep with him around, and thus she accomplished the appearance of never seeming tired or having to sleep. He could pick up on when she was more tired than usual, and when she had just slept, however briefly, but he never came upon her sleeping or even close.

Even so it hadn't seemed an issue in the time since they'd reconnected. She was never the one to break stride first, and always understood when he had to go, oftentimes being the one to insist he needed to. And it was so that they fell into a comfortable rhythm, a day and a night, or a night and a day together, a single evening or day apart, and then repeat. He would reconvene with Aster and their friends and tell them of his small adventures in the between times, and he felt as if he earned some closeness with the fauns that he hadn't before, though he was always drawn back out to Lunisa. Their time was filled with song and conversation and travel and gardening. Leeyoon taught her the things he knew about the world, and she taught him what she had learned.

There was balance, and in balance, there was peace. In peace, there was joy.

They were talking about the nature of weather when he spotted it, just past the garden that had started with those two singular seeds. The book. Kindle's book.

"Heaven's sake and land's alive!" Leeyoon interrupted Lunisa with a shout as he sat up, stiff as a rail and more anxious than an ant in the rain. She flipped over in surprise and fear, signing 'What?' to him as she looked around for any danger that might be accosting their summer morning.

"I forgot! I completely and utterly forgot!" He scrambled to his feet to check on the book, but to his great relief it was fine. It was just where he'd dropped it when he'd found Lunisa crying just a couple weeks back, unaltered save for just a bit of dirt and a few fallen leaves that had covered it. He flipped through the pages, but the wax-laden paper was fine. He let out a sigh of relief, the sound almost a hiss. Lunisa sniffed at the book with confusion, signing and asking again, 'What?'.

"I- I need to return this. I borrowed it from the library weeks ago.. I'm sure Kindle is going to be furious if I'm late." He sighed again, pinching his brow, feeling stupid for having forgotten. Lunisa waited for him to stop blinding himself to ask,

"What's kindle?"

"Not a what, a who. Kindle is a librarian, ah, someone who owns a library and looks after the books it contains. I borrowed this book from them to learn how to speak in sign, and it's surely due back by now.." He looked over his shoulder in the vague direction of the library, anxious to wait but too nervous to go.

"Where is it?" Lunisa asked, tail waving in excitement. Leeyoon grimaced and hesitated to tell her, but when her excitement did not die at his expression he relented.

"It's past the rock people's village, in the village of dusk and dawn, where the wax people live." It was east and north of the faun community, more east than north, but from where they were they would _definitely_ cross past the rock village, built into the steppes and cliffs, to get to the hills and plains of the dusk village. She lost her grin at that, and her eyes went wide and wild with fear. "You don't have to come, but I do have to go.." Leeyoon put a hand on her shoulder, but it didn't seem to calm her. They had hardly spent more than a moment apart, it felt like, and now he would be away for some time..

"Do you _have_ to?" She asked.

"It would be terribly rude to not return the book.. and if I return it now I don't have to return it later. Kindle was.. very kind to me. I owe it to them for that if for nothing else." He nodded, and she sighed audibly, the air hissing from her lungs in disappointment.

"Okay." She said with a pout. "Be back soon?"

"As quickly as I can." He reassured her. With that, he did something he hadn't before, and dove in for a quick hug before scooping the book back up and dashing off. He didn't wait to see how she felt about it, too scared that he'd shaken up their relationship already by having to leave at all to be sure that he could reaffirm it with a hug instead of shatter it further.

The travel was quick, but it still took him most of the morning and severely dried him out. When he stumbled into Kindle's library, he was panting and worn, but his heart was still pounding with nerves, afraid he was too late and would have to do some sort of service to pay back the social debt of having inconvenienced someone their book.

Kindle was sitting at their desk and looked up with some surprise at his arrival. "Leeyoon, dear! Why, what a wonderful surprise!" They smiled, "Though you do seem a bit worn, deary. It's a hot summer day; care for a drink?"

He could only nod.

He found himself at a table when Kindle put a ceramic glass of water in front of him, which he drank greedily. He hated to admit how much he'd needed it, but the day and the walk separate of each other would have worn him out, and together they had exhausted and dehydrated him. It might have been some concern if he'd kept on, but he'd made it to the library, and Kindle was kind enough to give him some water.

"Thank you.." He gasped.

"You seem to come to me in times of great peril, deary. What's wrong this time?" They said, taking back the cup.

"N-nothing. I just- I had to return the book.. Else I'd have forgotten." He was still panting, and he hated it. It was probably exasperated by his nerves about the whole thing, which he also hated.

"Hmm? Oh, that was due a few days ago, dear." Kindle shrugged.

"Wh- What?"

"Yes, it's been three weeks and three days since you first checked out the book. But, I figured, since you brought it back not too long ago, I could extend the due date a bit." They shrugged again. "I figured you were busy, and no one but Glim has _really_ visited my library in decades, and she's.. off.. seeing the world." They waved a hand weakly, nonchalantly.

"Are.. are you alright?"

"Oh, I'm just old, dear. Some days, hot days, are more difficult than others. That's how it is when you're nearly a thousand years old."

"You're a _thousand years old!?_" Leeyoon spat, surprised.

"Nearly, I said. I think my proper age is something like.. twelve hundred and nineteen? It doesn't matter much." Again they waved a hand. "But that doesn't matter. I take it you reconnected with your wild friend?"

"I- yes." Leeyoon said, still in shock from the apparent age of his mentor.

"Good. Things are well?"

"Yes. Very well." Leeyoon nodded. It was truer than his tone let on; he'd been incredibly happy spending his time with Lunisa, happier than he'd thought possible.

Kindle stared at him, deep and hard like they had just a few weeks ago, so hard that he was sure they were seeing something he simply could not.

It absolutely made his scales shiver.


	23. Chapter 23

And then they blinked, the fog of their eyes gone, cleared, and they smiled.

"I'm glad." They said simply, and began to waddle, slow and heavy, towards their desk. "If you wish to return the book, I'll take care of it. You still have your card?"

He plucked it from the pages of the books, where it had been safe these past few weeks. It seemed just as waterproof as the book had contained it, thankfully. Kindle took it from him with a hint of a smile.

"Very good." They said, taking a seat. They rummaged with some papers for a moment, then took the book from his hands, checking the interior for the other card within. They filled out a form here and the cared there, then set the book aside. "All done, deary. Anything else I can help you with today?

"N-no. I- I can't think of anything."

"Then I suppose.." They said with a sigh, "You'll be on your way?" He clutched his hands together, nervous. It was true that he wanted to get back to Lunisa, but the sun was hot and only getting hotter, and the day was long ahead, and Kindle seemed off.

"I- I think I better stay out of the sun for today, if that's all well and good with you..?" He asked.

"If you would prefer to stay.." They nodded, but they seemed no happier.

"Are you sure you're alright, Kindle?" Leeyoon asked again. He could feel his eyebrows pull close together without his consent, but he really was worried about them. They always seemed so energetic! Where was their passion now?

"Oh, I'm well enough, child. I really am just old. I can feel.. The length of my life and the path it has taken was written, metaphorically, long ago. I've written all I can write about the world, and I feel my time coming to an end.

The moon is rising on my life, Leeyoon. I know your people see it as the purest form of life, but mine see it as a period of rest for the rest of us. I'm going to rest, soon. Before the year is out, I think. I had hoped to have found my successor, but the immediate future is too nebulous, I can't.. see." Their words weren't well constructed or pointed or even particularly clear, mumbled and muddy and mysterious instead.

"See?"

They seemed to snap out of their fugue, looking up at him, seeing him clearly. "It's not your concern, dear."

"You just said you were going to die before the year was up, Kindle. I'm not sure I believe you."

"Which part?" They asked wistfully.

"Either. I know which part I don't _want_ to believe."

"You're kind, deary. But life ends. It's part of nature's design. Even someone as long lived as I has to pass the torch along, so to speak. I'm not concerned with the passing, just to whom I will be passing it." They shook their head slowly. "But, again, that isn't your concern. Your job is to take care of that lovely longtail in the woods."

"Right." Leeyoon said, concerned and confused.

"You may stay in the library. I have some recommendations if you need something to occupy you."

"I'll find something, thank you." Leeyoon shook his head, and began to turn away but he realized- "Wait a second, I've never mentioned that Lunisa was a long tailed faun. How did you-"

"A Chronicler has their ways, Leeyoon." Kindle said with a dark smirk. "Go read a book, my child. I have no energy left to speak with you."

Leeyoon balked at the near venom in their voice, the sudden aggression, and an older, angrier, less heat-driven version of him might have snapped back, but he was too tired to argue, and he knew he'd asked a lot already, and so stepped back and away. He tried to turn his mind to the books, but nothing held his interest for long, and he was left with a general sense of unease.

He couldn't explain why, but he desperately wanted to leave. The atmosphere of the library was calm and pleasant, as serene and quiet as it always was, but it did not set him at ease. Instead, it was as if the space was rejecting him for being so at odds with the serenity it was trying to create. He would have left if it weren't so hot and he were so dehydrated. Even the tall ceramic cup of water was only a drop in a bucket compared to what he would need to go out in the heat again safely..

The anxious, buzzing feeling only grew within him as barely an hour passed. He must have read a quarter of the book titles, finding nothing to satisfy or distract him, his guts twisting and squirming inside him like rebellious children throwing a fit. He set yet another book back in its spot on the shelf when a sharp squeal escaped him- something had touched him!

It wasn't a something, though, only a someone, and it was Kindle, their hand lukewarm against his shoulder, and their face was more serious than before.

"Leeyoon, you need to leave."

"Wh- what for?" He would go of course, but this seemed out of character! Certainly they were ill.. He racked his brain for how to care for a wax person, but their biology was beyond him!

"Your longtail needs you." They said, and grabbed him by the wrist, dragging him quickly from the aisle toward the door.

"What do you mean? She ought to be waiting-"

"Ought to be, yes, but she isn't. There's a commotion in the rock village."

"How do you know it's her?" He heard himself practically whining, both in protest of their harsh grip on him and their strange behavior. Kindle stopped harshly and stared hard at him again, their eyes cruel and angry and hurt. He couldn't comprehend what they were seeing or why they were looking at him like that or why they were feeling those things, but he couldn't ask.

"I can either answer that, or you can go save your friend. What you choose will speak volumes to what you _really_ value in this life, Leeyoon. This moment shapes your future. What do you _want_?" They spoke in a low, rumbling voice that was unlike them, but Leeyoon heard nothing but absolute truth in those dangerous rumbles. It terrified him.

"She needs _saving_?" He asked, his mind clicking back into place. "What? Where? Why? Where?!" The thoughts in his head turned themselves upside down as he shifted focus. His friend needed him!

"The village. The border. Top of the cliffs." Kindle pointed, out the doorway, past the fabric door and extended into the sun, their fingertip pointing to what looked like a distant storage facility. He forced his eyes to focus on it, and could see nothing wrong from so far away, but if Kindle-

There was a splash of water that covered his whole body, refreshing and alarming.

"Bluh!" He coughed, surprised. "What was-"

"No time!" Kindle hissed, and shoved him. "That should last you to the forest, now **go**!" They commanded, and he wasted no more time wondering why they were bouncing so quickly back and forth between two impossibly unlike-themself personalities.

Leeyoon ran.


	24. Chapter 24

Traveling from the village of dusk and dawn was much easier than traveling from the faun's place to just about anywhere, and he didn't have to run more than ten minutes through what little forest was between the sun and dusk village. He was by far out of breath, and he still had to go up to the silo Kindle had pointed at, but Leeyoon was energized. It wasn't quite fear or anxiety that drove him, but something else, and though his lungs ached and his legs burned and the sun stung, none of these were enough to stop him.

The hike up the hill, however, was not so easy. The town was built into the cliffs over the natural steppes that had been accentuated by centuries of shaping, and as such much of it was vertical. The higher up the cliff a building or person was, the higher importance they were. At the top were those who organized the people and guarded the crops and children, and the crops themselves at the very top. Sohone had lived there, in the forge at the second to top level of the village.

Leeyoon climbed the levels with continued unease, though his body was surprisingly receptive to the climb itself. He'd simply hoped he'd find Lunisa sooner than the very top of the cliffs, even if a tiny, tired part of his head wondered why in the hell he was even doing this when Kindle hadn't provided any proof to their claims. But, given that he hadn't found her, he kept going. Most of the rock people who lived here were still working the fields in the middle of the day, directly opposite people like Leeyoon, who ought to have all been asleep, but it made his travel quick. He couldn't imagine being stopped and asked what the hell he was doing here.

He was severely dried out by the time he'd made his way to the top of the village, panting with lungs straining and legs aching. His whole body hurt as he stumbled his way to the top level, but he still didn't see Lunisa. Kindle said she was around here.. so where was she? He wanted to believe them, he trusted them, in any case.

"Hey you! Night guy!" A voice called out. It reminded him strongly of Sohone, but when he turned, of course, it wasn't Sohone. It was another rock person, not Sohone, who was surely and obviously on the sun temple somewhere to the west and south of there, but they seemed just as aggressive as a pre-Mune Sohone. He jumped to standing, having been hunched up with heaving breath.

"Y-yes?" He managed.

"What the hell are you doing here?" They- presumably she- said, pointing an aggressive finger in his direction. "Do you have anything to do with that _rat_ that was in our fields?!"

"A rat?" He asked, his breath returning to him.

"Yeah! One of those night creepers!" It was definitely a she, though she was large and muscular, almost as much as Sohone, but only almost. She was paler, too, and her bands of color were worn from being in the sun. A particularly dark band crossed over her mouth, above one ear and below the other across her face. It was a terrifying look. She snarled viciously as she approached, but she stopped and put her hands on her hips to look down at him.

He looked up at her as she judged him, obviously torn between deciding to tear him apart and throw him out of her village.

"Yes." He said on instinct.

"Yes?"

"Yes. I'm.. here to collect them. I heard there was a faun here and I knew they shouldn't be, so I came to bring them home!" He clapped his hands together and smiled brightly, summoning every bit of crowd-pleaser he'd ever cultivated within himself. The rock lady seemed pleased, smiling, and she stood straighter, grinning to her accompanying individuals.

"See? He's here to get his rat back, gals!" She sneered to them, and the three smaller, still-buff rock ladies all laughed. He forced himself to grin wider, despite their obvious and inciting prejudice.

"Precisely." He smiled.

"Great! Well, we saw the bitch run in our silo!" One of the smaller rock ladies grinned, elbowing her compatriot. His stomach twisted as she spoke, and he desired greatly to do terrible things to them all for speaking that way about _his friend_. But- but but but, he contained himself.

"Yes, the culprit! Which way did you see her?" He asked, playing dumb. Sun folk tended to underestimate the night folk, though admittedly the reverse was true as well, just less… violently. If he played his part, they would just think a dumb night fellow, here to take a criminal home.

They laughed, as he'd suspected they would at his blindly stupid act. "In the silo, sir!" One of them sneered, pointing. He looked over his shoulder and up the cliff a way as if he hadn't seen the silo on his way up.

"Glorious! Let me dash in and get her, then!" He smiled brightly, and started walking toward the silo. It was silent a ways, but it wasn't long before they started laughing at his expense. His heart twisted violently, angrily, _furiously_, as hot as the core of the planet, and if he weren't already walking toward the storage facility he might have turned and _burned them_. What he wouldn't _give_ to give them a real reason to fear the night!

He trotted up the short hill to the building, tearing open the heavy door, and tucked in. It was significantly cooler here, and he felt great relief at being away from those _animals_ who so insulted him and his friend, but he didn't see Lunisa. There were three levels, each seemingly stocked to the brim already with.. well, Leeyoon didn't know what. The fruit he was familiar with all went bad after a few days of being plucked from the vine or branch that had housed it, so he couldn't imagine what all they had here that lasted long enough to be worth storing.

But, they did say that someone was here, and Kindle had said that Lunisa was here, so he had to imagine that a night person, at the very least, was here.

"Hello!" He called, hushed and whispered, but his voice called out through the silo. "Hello?" He was less certain, hoping, but scared.

A pale blue figure suddenly, hesitantly, emerged from behind a round shape, and he recognized the purple eyes of-

"Lunisa!" He squealed, running forward with arms outstretched to pick her up. He spun her around, "What in the world are you doing here?" He asked, holding her close. She pressed into him tightly, shaking.

"I was worried!" Lunisa signed. "I came to find you, and next thing you know I'm being chased in here!" She hugged him back after signing her explanation, her face rubbing into his chest. She must have been terrified of those brutes, chasing her so! The fire in his heart burned coldly and he almost snarled- but they weren't there. Lunisa was.

"I'm so glad you're safe!" He said softly. "Kindle said you needed saving, but I didn't imagine this! Why'd you come? I was fine!"

Lunisa only shrugged. "I missed you. You seemed nervous."

"I was fine- it was only a societal inconvenience! They- Those individuals are scared of you- of you being here, and as ridiculous as that is, we have to get you out of here before they decide to do something drastic!" He explained and pulled her back close. How was he to spin this? If they emerged with him pulling her behind, they might assume what he'd said was true and let them go- but what if they didn't? There were cases- not many recently, thankfully- of sun folk responding with violence to those of the night in their area, and that sun woman seemed insistent on violence.

She looked up at him with dread and confusion, and he only squeezed her tighter.

"Don't worry, I-"

They both turned to the creaking open door of the silo, to see the rock woman and her crew enter after him.


	25. Chapter 25

"Ya got him, fish man?" The biggest rock lady yelled, laughing already. Leeyoon stiffened, his hands wanting to turn to fists and claws without his consent, and Lunisa, in his embrace, shrank and turned to jelly there. He could see her mind go blank behind wide eyes; she really was terrified of them.

He stiffened further, unsure what to do, but he could tell that Lunisa was even more unsure than he was. So, with a deep breath, he whipped around, Lunisa still in his grip, and laughed, "Absolutely! Nasty little bugger, but I got her!" He made a point of shoving her against her will, but she was like putty, and moved where he wanted, only hesitating insomuch as her physical ability forced her to.

"Good, good!" The same lady said, grinning, knocking her compatriots on the shoulder as if she'd proved them wrong. Leeyoon felt safe to leave, walking forward, Lunisa in his grip and trusting him still, but the rock lady looked down at him, her arms spreading to stop him from passing. "Now, let us take care of her."

"P-pardon?" That wasn't what he'd expected.

"She terrorized our town, messed with our silo- I think we deserve to met out her punishment." The lady's smile, broad and toothy, dropped.

"But I- She needs to come home." He said, pulling her close, pushing her behind him. The rock lady only approached.

"But I say she needs to be punished." She growled, looming low over him. She wasn't much taller than he, but she was made of rock, and that made her dangerous.

"She- she will be punished." Leeyoon said, eyebrows knit tight together.

"Oh?" She obviously doubted him, but wanted to see what he would say.

"Of course! For wandering out of her territory, for making me come and get her, you think she _won't_ be punished!? I don't belong in the day anymore than she does, after all!" He jerked Lunisa, just a bit, to sell his point, snarling up at the rock lady with an expectant pout. He had to make her believe he expected and _deserved_ to punish Lunisa, or else she'd take his friend away. The living mountain snarled down at him, but her friends laughed.

"What'll you do, bury her?" They knickered.

"Oh, yes! To be encased in the earth is the worst punishment!" He said, wasting no time.

"Don't you all sleep in the earth?" Asked one.

"Yes, but to be _buried_ is hell. She will surely receive no less for sneaking away!" Leeyoon clutched Lunisa close, hoping that he wasn't being too violent with her. She didn't resist him dragging her about, and looked frightened regardless, it seemed, and his words only made that much worse.

"So you say, fish man,", said the largest again, "But how do we know for sure you mean to punish her? We don't take lightly to your _people_-" She jabbed him in the chest, "-messing with our stuff."

He puffed up at her derogatory jab, as if all his muscles became iron, hot with the fury that she was unknowingly stoking."I am Leeyoon, former guardian to be! No one takes the balance between night and day more seriously than I save _a guardian themself_! If you really think it demands a higher authority than I, feel free to flag down Sohone!" He snarled up at her, his scales and fins rising in anger. _How dare they question him! How dare they look down! How __**dare**_-

"Fine! Take the bitch and go!" The big rock lady didn't look impressed, but the confidence of her lackey, even against her will, was such that to contradict her would make them all look bad. The crew member didn't seem aware of this, nor did the others, just himself and the big one.

"I will! Thank you, ladies, for your supreme cooperation!" He said, thankfully, sporting that full grin as he guided Lunisa out. Even as they slipped past, he couldn't help but feel that this wasn't over.

Nobody stopped them, though, as they walked down the hill, as he made sure his hand was on hers the whole way. He didn't dare look behind him, though he saw Lunisa checked a few times. It wasn't until they were back in the forest before he let go of her hand and picked her up in a hug.

"Are you alright? I'm so sorry for being so rough but if they thought I was going to be soft with you they'd have_ filleted_ us both!" Leeyoon wanted to cry, exhausted and worried and still so _furious_ that he'd had to behave that way. She nodded against him, and returned the hug, and he let out a deep sigh.

"What was that about?" She asked as he pulled away. She was still scared, but she was, at least, able to think again.

"They thought you were trespassing or stealing or something.. the big one clearly wanted to _beat_ you for it.. We're lucky we got away.." He heaved, thinking about the damage she could have done. She could've broken their spines, snapped their limbs, possibly ripped them in half.. The images of the damage she could've done to them flashed dangerously close in his mind. It sparked an equal amount of fear and… something horrendous in him. Those violent urges he'd felt, and the strange confidence that he could have undoubtedly carried them out.. he shuddered at his own mind.

"I'm sorry.." Lunisa said, looking past their tree, up the hill. "I was worried.."

"No, it's fine.." He sighed. "Kindle said you'd be up there and I almost didn't believe them.. Are you okay? You said you were chased."

"I'm fine." Lunisa said with a shake of her head. "Are you? It's hot out.."

"I'm fine. Kindle splashed me and I think there was magic in the water.." He was joking, but as he thought about it, he didn't feel as dried out as he should, given his hike and the lack of shade on his way both up and down the hill. It wasn't even close to sundown yet, but he felt positively fine.

"We should go." Lunisa said, putting a hand out for Leeyoon.

"Right." He nodded and took her hand. They didn't need to run; their departure wasn't quite as dramatic as that, but they went swiftly, hand in hand. Leeyoon led the way to more night-friendly woods, those they'd both traveled before, and Lunisa followed dutifully behind. She didn't say it, but Leeyoon felt from the silence and her refusal to stop that she was unnerved by her time in the day village.

Leeyoon remembered when he'd visited, officially, as soon-to-be- guardian of the night. People there were… well, less than receptive. He'd stayed away since then. He could only imagine how an errant denizen of night might fare, unexpected and unannounced and unwanted. The people of the day were, beyond stereotyping, much more violent than those of the night. Fauns were, by vow and coming of age, pacifists, but the day people made no such vows, not ever. They did as they pleased, and as the sun was won by conquests, so did they regard the world. They did as they pleased.

But, they were beyond the village borders. They were safe. He firmly held Lunisa's hand in his own as they walked further and further into the woods. With each tree that they passed, his heart calmed further. The near jog that they started at slowed to a trot, to a walk, to a saunter.

Still, he held her hand. They'd done this dozens of times by now, but never after such a charged moment. He felt.. not silly, not childish, but something else as he held her hand. She was so important to him, had grown so near and dear to him in the past few weeks.

She was, without a doubt, the most important person in the world to him. All he wanted in life was to tell her stories, sing to her, and keep her safe. That he very nearly failed to do that by returning a book was not lost on him.

Still, he'd gotten there in time, and now they surely had all the time in the world again. He wanted to spend his time with her in the woods, trading stories, traveling, swimming, her dancing, him singing, and them just being.

He looked back at her, hand gripped in his. She seemed somber, but her hand was tight in his, and she kept pace with him no matter how quickly he felt he was going. Her ears were low, a sure sign of displeasure, but her expression was neutral. Leeyoon couldn't guess what she was feeling. It was a tense situation he'd managed to pull her out of, for sure, but she didn't seem either exceptionally relieved _or_ stressed about it.

She caught his eye, and looked up with a smile. Though he'd only looked at her through a side eye, she'd noticed his attention, and she smiled.


	26. Chapter 26

Leeyoon grinned, and felt sheepish for having stolen the glance and earned the smile, turning away again. He didn't want to run into a tree, after all. But, he gave Lunisa's hand a squeeze, because he didn't want her to think he was ashamed of her or something.

"Are you alright?" He asked. "You had a pretty intense day." He looked back, less in a sneaky, shy sort of way, and more in an honest attempt to have a conversation. She shrugged, and kept her hand in his, not even trying to pull away to respond.

"Do you.. want to talk about what happened?" He asked, still turned to her. He didn't really _know_ what happened, but he could guess that it had only reinforced her fear of the people of stone. She was still visibly uncomfortable, her grip on his hand firm. He felt like a lifeline, and though he felt pride that she felt he was trustworthy in that role, it was telling that she needed it still after all that had happened.

Lunisa looked down at her empty hand, balled in a loose fist at her side, and without looking up shook her head.

"I.. I'm not going to pry." He'd promised he wouldn't, didn't he? "But I hope you know you can tell me anything. Not that you have to, just that you can. I- I want to.. to be there.. if, if, you know, you need-"

Lunisa pulled away, then, sharply and quickly, ears straight in the air.

"Wh- what-" He'd started, but then he heard the crashing sound of someone blundering through the underbrush. He turned toward the sound, and when he turned back, Lunisa was gone.

"Lunisa!?" He shouted after her, but there wasn't so much as a waft of air to tell him where she'd gone. He felt cold.. and then he felt that fire again. Who _dared_ frighten her!? He turned toward the would-be assailant, still heading his way, and he felt less sure about his ability to not harm them for this unforgivable trespass against him and his!

"Now see here-!" He started, stomping toward the sound, cutting himself off as he recognized the face that was emerging from the shade- "Glim?"

"Leeyoon?" She seemed surprised. "I didn't know you knew my name."

"I- what are you doing out here?"

"I'm on my way to the fauns? Every couple of weeks, remember?" She scoffed, and kept on her way. "What are _you_ doing here? I thought your only hobby was lurking in the community." She snipped at him.

"I was with a friend! A friend _you_ startled off!" He snarled, and turned away. He ought to be finding her, he thought, rather than talk to the nosy nobody who'd frightened her away in the first place. To Leeyoon's surprise, though, Glim started to follow him.

"You? Have a friend?"

Leeyoon looked down at her with a grimace. "Yes, who'd have thought?"

"It's just surprising, because-"

"Because what? I'm full of myself?" He sneered. "Yes, well, I took your advice to heart and got over it. I'm nothing and nobody and I think I quite like it and you are probably hindering my ability to find my frightened friend!" He did his best not to snarl, but the heat of rage was still very alive in him, and he didn't want to hurt Glim, despite her antagonistic approach.

"Wow. Sheesh." She said sarcastically. "I was just going to say that Aster mentioned you'd been isolating yourself for, like, months. So it's surprising that in the three weeks I've been with Mune, you've managed to make yourself a decent friend."

"Oh." He felt a bit of shame at having jumped to conclusions. "Right."

"You're right, though, I wasn't, uh, very elegant with how I- I mean, I wasn't very nice about talking with you. And I am sorry. I didn't. I would never tell anyone that they were 'nobody'."

"Well, I am. Whether you meant to say it or not, the message is received, loud and clear. I'm no one. I'm not a guardian, not a leader, I'm- I'm nothing. And that's fine. It turns out that I'm.. I'm sort of liked, around here. Not to be egotistical or narcissistic, I just mean that- that for all that I was 'important', now that I'm not I'm finding that people like me around.. and I never knew."

"Really?"

"I don't know." He felt silly- he probably should have realized these things years ago, but the fact of the matter was that he simply hadn't. He thought that the fauns had been as unattached to him as he'd been to them, and that they would be glad when he was gone, and confused and even disappointed when he wasn't. That they _wanted_ him around, despite his previously poor attitude, meant the world to him.

Though, not nearly as much as the missing Lunisa did.

"None of that matters, anyway." He waved Glim away. "I need to find Lunisa, and she's unlikely to come out if you're around."

"Lunisa? Who's this?"

"She's a faun."

"Not one I know."

"You wouldn't; she's not part of Mune's community. She's a longtail, and she's incredibly skittish."

"A longtail? I thought they were extinct!" Glim gasped.

"Wh- _pardon_?" Leeyoon whipped around, curious and consumed with it.

"Like thirty years ago a stone village warrior went on a crusade against them! They single handedly wiped out an already low-number variation of the faun species! No one's seen a longtail faun in almost twenty three years, Leeyoon! Until now," She gasped again, and turned to face him, "Until you!"

"I- How have I never heard of this? I had _the most_ extensive education, and I've never-"

"You _wouldn't!_ You were versed in the old texts, yes, but recent history? What's the latest historical event you can think of?" She rolled her eyes at him, and he frowned. The most recent thing he could think of was more than fifty years ago- the last time a trial was held by the Guardians Yule and Xolal.

"Point taken." He grumbled. "Still, I- I find it hard to believe they've been- they've been _wiped out._" Such a gruesome way to say 'genocide', he thought.

"Well, maybe there's more out there, if there's the one." Glim shrugged. "But she might be afraid _because_ of what happened. I don't presume to know her age, but if she's in our age group, then that'd place her in the generation that would come _after_ the crusade, and there's no doubt that her parents would teach her to fear the ones who'd, you know, tried to murder them all." She reasoned. "You haven't seen her, have you?"

"Not since you scared her away." Leeyoon scoffed.

"No! Not Lunisa! The stone warrior who killed all the longtails! She's still alive you know!" Glim beat a hand against his arm.

"Sorry!" He sneered, "I didn't know this _genocide_ had even taken place a few minutes ago, let alone the bastard who carried it out!"

"Ugh!" Glim groaned. "Anyway, if she's alive, and she is, I can almost guarantee you that she's still hunting. There's a good chance she's going to come after your friend someday."

Leeyoon felt himself go cold. Glim was the most clever person he knew, and he'd known that since he met her. Their interaction was brief, and neither of them had actually exchanged a word, but there was a fear in her eyes when he merely glanced at her that told him that she knew that something was wrong with him. She was incredibly smart, and if he hadn't been under the influence of those snakes he might have been able to appreciate that fact.

But he was blind to her and ignored her, and after, he never thought if was important again.

That was, until now.

What she was saying was bad, but if she believed it, it was probably true. And that meant that his dear Lunisa was in danger.


End file.
